[Python-Dev] Monkeypatching idioms -- elegant or ugly?

[Kevin Teague]

+1 on having established Python idioms for these techniques.

While I don't know if there has ever been a formal definition of  
monkey patch, the term monkey patch came from guerilla patch, which  
came from two or more dynamic modifications to a class interfering  
with each other. These modifications were usually made by extension  
code (Zope add-on Products) to upstream code (the Zope framework), so  
I would define a monkey patch only as dynamic modifications made to a  
class with the *intent to change or correct behaviour in upstream code*.

The term has also caught on with the a second definition of referring  
to any dynamic modification of class, regardless of intent though.

I would perhaps call these methods something like:

  * add_method_to_class

  * extend_class

This gives you a better idea of what they do, rather than use a term  
with a somewhat ambigous definition. With monkeypatch_method under the  
definition of "altering existing upstream behviour", I might expect it  
to raise an error if the method I was replacing on a class did not  
exist (e.g. upstream code was refactored so my patch no longer applied).