[Python-3000] Metaclasses in Py3K (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido at python.org
Fri Dec 8 15:53:34 CET 2006

I've been thinking about this too, and I think it's reasonable to let the metaclass provide the dict to be used as locals. This is easier when the metaclass is given in the class header, e.g. by way of a base class, or through the default metaclass. Although the default default metaclass could of course have a hook to pass things on to another metaclass specified using a metaclass assignment, I'd rather innovate a bit more and add keyword arguments to the class header, e.g.

class C(B1, B2, metaclass=Foo): ...

How can we design this feature without yet another gigantic contentious thread? I'm losing my appetite for those. I wonder if the right thing wouldn't be if you could do some serious research into the best possible semantics, syntax and implementation, and then post a fully-formed proposal (not quite a PEP). There is of course always the danger that you might go off into the deep end with that, so I'll leave it up to your judgement to decide when to post again. (Also, I'm still quite restricted in my internet access, at least until Monday.)

--Guido

On 12/8/06, Talin <talin at acm.org> wrote:

I'd like to see metaclasses have additional capabilities in Py3K, and one thing I'd like is for metaclasses to be able to have access to the order of declarations within a class.

If I understand correctly, in the current Python a class definition is essentially a suite with ordinary local variables; once that suite finishes executing, the locals() dict becomes the class's dict. The metaclass slips in between these two phases of construction, in that it can examine or modify the dict before it becomes a class. Suppose, however, that the metaclass could hook into the get/set operations of the locals() dict itself. In other words, the metaclass statement would have a side-effect of replacing the locals() dict with a mapping object supplied by the metaclass. This would allow the metaclass to intercept individual variable assignments as they occur, rather than taking the whole dict in at once. I can think of a ton of applications for this. For example, you could implement the functionality of slots as a metaclass, allowing you to define the slots using regular Python syntax rather than having to pass in a list of name strings. You could define C structures using regular Python syntax. You could declare CORBA or other IDL interfaces using Python syntax and appropriate decorators. You might even be able to do things like enumerations using metaclasses. -- Talin

Python-3000 mailing list Python-3000 at python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000 Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-3000/guido%40python.org

-- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

More information about the Python-3000 mailing list