[Edu-sig] COUNTER class.

[Jeffrey Elkner]

Hi Kirby,

With the help of student Python guru, Lex Berezhny, I've been playing
around a bit with the suggestion you sent me.

Here is what I get when I attempt to merge the "Element" class you sent
me with a "countable thing" class that Lex showed me:

class COUNTER:
    stat_state = {}

    def __init__(self, value = 0, type):
        self.value = value
        if not self.stat_state.has_key(type):
            self.stat_state[type] = stat_state = {"assign": 0,
"compare": 0}

        self.stat = self.stat_state[type]

        def __repr__(self):
            return str(self.value)

        def __eq__(self, other):
            self.state["compare"] += 1
            return self.value == other.value

        def __gt__(self, other):
            self.state["compare"] += 1
            return self.value > other.value

        def __lt__(self, other):
            self.state["compare"] += 1
            return self.value < other.value

        def __le__(self, other):
            self.state["compare"] += 1
            return self.value <= other.value

        def __ge__(self, other):
            self.state["compare"] += 1
            return self.value >= other.value

The idea is to create a class of things that know how to count together,
so that they increment a common counter (so a > b should only count 1
comparison).

I couldn't find a way to give this property to assignment. Every time an
assignment happens with one of these things, I would like to count it.
Is there a way to do that?

jeff