Forgive me if I mangle any terminology here, but please correct me if I do...
I have an object which acts exactly like a string as long as I stay in Python land. However, I am using the object in Softimage|XSI a 3D application on Windows. It was created while (briefly) owned by Microsoft, so knowledge of COM with excel or anything else should be applicable I should think. I should also say I am a COM novice and still learning Python (there are few that aren't learning though I suppose). Here is an example: class Name(object): def __init__(self, s): self.__data = s def __repr__(self): return repr(self.__data) def __cmp__(self, string): return cmp(self.__data, string) def __contains__(self, char): return char in self.__data __data = "Test" __doc = "Test" def __Set(self, value): self.__data = value def __Get(self): return self.__data data = property(fget = __Get, fset = __Set, fdel = None, doc = "string-like example") It also uses some new-style class Property -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list