I have an idea for a new special method in a class called __first__(). The
main purpose of it would be to setup somethings a class needs to run before
it is first initiated, probably only really in modules because in your code
you could simply put this setup stuff before the class however if you are
calling something like 'from foo import Bar', where Bar is a class and Bar
needs some specific imports you would need something to run the first time
Bar is initiated.
I have two possible ideas for how this could be done. To look at how this
is going to work I will make an example class which would be in the class
foo:
class Bar(object):
def __first__():
import math
def __init__(self, n):
self.a = math.log(2, n)
The first possible way is that if you just call Bar (without brackets or
any attributes) this is when it will run __first__ so you can just do this
after you run 'from foo import Bar'. However I don't particularly like this
idea because you could just create a staticmethod setup or something
instead of __first__ and then rather than running Bar you would just run
Bar.setup(), not much harder.
Personally I prefer my second idea. This is that when you first run
Bar.__new__() it will check if it has a __first__() and if so it will run
__first__ and then it will run the normal __new__. However, if you then
create another instance, so run __new__ again, it will not run __first__
again so it is still an efficient place to run imports or setup of things.
As an example of where this could be useful, I made a module 'temperature'
to help me neatly read one-wire temperature sensors with a raspberry pi.
This included a class Sensor which you gave the code of the sensor and then
when you called temp of that instance it will return what temperature that
sensor is reading. I would like in my other code to be able to run 'from
temperature import Sensor' because that would then mean I could just call
Sensor('28-000648372f') to create a sensor however at the start of this
module it imports os and glob and it also runs some setup for how it reads
the sensors and has such I have to just do 'import temperature' and then
every time I create a sensor I have to call temperature.Sensor which isn't
as nice.
I was wondering what you thought of this idea.
_______________________________________________
Python-ideas mailing list
Python-ideas@python.org
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas
Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
