[Python-Dev] Monkeypatching idioms -- elegant or ugly? (original) (raw)

nathan binkert nate at binkert.org
Thu Jan 31 18:49:18 CET 2008

Another thing about monkeypatching is that it seems like the best way to write an extension class where you want half to be in C/C++ and half in Python. I'm in the middle of working on such a class and there are plenty of members that just don't need to be in C++.

Is there a better/preferred idiom for such a thing? I don't want to subclass my new class because I want any objects created on the C++ side to also get the python methods.

Nate

On Jan 31, 2008 9:23 AM, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:

On Jan 30, 2008 9:00 PM, Kevin Teague <kevin at bud.ca> wrote: > +1 on having established Python idioms for these techniques. > > While I don't know if there has ever been a formal definition of > monkey patch, the term monkey patch came from guerilla patch, which > came from two or more dynamic modifications to a class interfering > with each other. These modifications were usually made by extension > code (Zope add-on Products) to upstream code (the Zope framework), so > I would define a monkey patch only as dynamic modifications made to a > class with the intent to change or correct behaviour in upstream code. > > The term has also caught on with the a second definition of referring > to any dynamic modification of class, regardless of intent though.

Check out the wikipedia entry too. > I would perhaps call these methods something like: > > * addmethodtoclass > > * extendclass I don't like extend because in Java that's how you define a subclass. > This gives you a better idea of what they do, rather than use a term > with a somewhat ambigous definition. With monkeypatchmethod under the > definition of "altering existing upstream behviour", I might expect it > to raise an error if the method I was replacing on a class did not > exist (e.g. upstream code was refactored so my patch no longer applied). Funny, several examples mentioned earlier in this thread actually check that the method doesn't already exist... -- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)

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