Paul Boddie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ... > > > class C1: > > > def __init__(self,xxx): ... > > Use __new__ for such purposes, not __init__. (You need to make C1 > > newstyle, e.g. inherit from object, to make special method __new__ > > work). > > Call me a traditionalist, but why wouldn't a factory function be good > enough?
That depends on whether you need name C1 to refer to a class, or not. If you want name C1 to be usable outside this module as a class (to subclass it, use with isinstance or issubclass, be available to an IDE's classbrowser or other means of introspection including pydoc, etc), then making name C1 refer to a function instead would not work. > Or perhaps seeing more special methods and decorators just puts me in > a grumpy mood. ;-) For me, the power of Python is derived from being > able to do things like making callables "constructors" whilst > providing some illusion that C1 (in this case) is a class. For me, OTOH, it's not just smoke and mirrors (or as you say "illusion"), there's also plenty of real power, and __new__ is part of that. (Decorators however are just handy syntax -- they let you avoid repeating one name three times, and avoiding repetition is a good thing, but their real power is essentially that of higher-order-functions that could of course be used with other syntax if need be). Alex -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
