On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 6:32 PM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis@pitrou.net> wrote: ...
This feature already exists, as you mention, using issubclass() or isinstance(). What you are asking for is a different feature: check that a class has an appropriate implementation of the advertised capabilities. Traditionally, this is best left to unit testing (or other forms of test-based checking).
Do you have an use case where unit testing would not be appropriate for this?
Why are you thinking about unit tests ? Don't you ever use issubclass/isinstance in your programs ? Checking signatures using ABC when you create a plugin system is one use case for instance.
(also, you'll have a hard time checking methods with *args or **kwargs parameters)
True, but I don't expect the ABC to define abstract methods with vague arguments.
It depends on the arguments. And the implementation could definitely use *args or **kwargs arguments, especially if it acts as a proxy.
Sure but ISTM that most of the time signatures are well defined, and proxies lives in an upper layer. Regards Tarek