[python-win32] "Casting" COM objects

[Paul Prescod]

Consider the following case:

class A:
     def foo(self): pass

class B(A):
     def bar(self): pass

class C(A):
     def car(self): pass

Now pretend Python had static typing:

class Z:
     def __init__(self, thing):
	self.thing = thing

     def get_A() returns A:
	return self.thing

Now in statically typed languages like C or IDL, it is perfectly legal 
for C to return a "B" because a B isa A. Then, client code casts from an 
A reference to a B reference to get access to the bar() function.

Now imagine the code above is the output of MakePy. The object returned 
by MakePy is a B wrapped in a proxy for an A. What I would like to know 
is whether there is a function out there that can take the _oleobj_ 
pointer and determine at runtime what the best proxy is for it. I've 
figured out how to do some casting "manually" by importing a gen_py'd 
module and selecting the right class, but I wonder if there is an easier way

  Paul Prescod