[Python-Dev] Classes and Metaclasses in Smalltalk

[Thomas Heller]

> > The most common use for these seems to be for calling
> > inherited methods, so perhaps something like
> > 
> >    inherited MyBaseClass.foo(arg, ...)
> > 
> > which would be equivalent to
> > 
> >    getmethod(MyBaseClass, 'foo')(self, arg, ...)
> > 
> > where getmethod() is a new builtin like getattr()
> > except that it looks in the __classdict__, and 'self'
> > is really whatever the first argument of the containing
> > method was.
> 
> The second most common use is to reference class variables
> (e.g. imagine a class that keeps counters of how many instances have
> been created and deleted in C.initcount and C.delcount).  But these
> should not have to change, since they really are class attributes.
> 
> > Now that we have __future__, would such a change be contemplatable?
> > Or is it too radical to even think about?
> 
> If we can find a way to spell "super.method", we should be ready for
> the future.  I can't think of something right off the bat
> unfortunately.

Could we make

  super(self, MyBaseClass).foo(arg, ...)

behave similar to

  MyBaseClass.foo(self, arg, ...)

Wrapping this stuff in a function would probably also
enable to use the same pattern in existing python versions.

Thomas