[Python-Dev] Submitting PEP 422 (Simple class initialization hook) for pronouncement (original) (raw)

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Sun Feb 10 14:52:33 CET 2013


On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 11:33 PM, Simon Cross <hodgestar+pythondev at gmail.com> wrote:

On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 2:32 PM, Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> wrote:

For those that don't recall the original discussion, the proposal is to add a new initclass hook, invoked after the class object is created, but before the class decorators are applied. This provides a simple approach to inherited post-creation modification of classes, without the need for a custom metaclass. Couldn't one just write a metaclass that calls initclass for you?

And, indeed, that's what Zope did more than 10 years ago. The problem is that you're now locked in to that metaclass - metaclass conflicts become a permanent risk.

You also can't add a metaclass to public classes, the risk of introducing metaclass conflicts means that such a change is always backwards incompatible.

Adding init_class is fine though, because that's no higher risk than adding a new or init method (it's actually lower risk, since the signature is always consistent).

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia



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