Yet Another PEP: Query Protocol Interface or __query__

[Aahz Maruch]

In article <slrn9bgb7f.kam.neelk at alum.mit.edu>,
Neelakantan Krishnaswami <neelk at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>On 20 Mar 2001 17:47:35 -0800, Aahz Maruch <aahz at panix.com> wrote:
>>In article <Pine.LNX.4.21.0103201837570.21343-100000 at clarkevans.com>,
>>Clark C. Evans <cce at clarkevans.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>    A new built-in method, __query__ is proposed.  This method has
>>>    a single argument, an interface protocol identifier, and either
>>>    returns an object supporting the given protocol, or throws an
>>>    unknown exception. [...]
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> Most importantly, how does one find out what interfaces an object *does*
>> support?
>
>Why is this important?
>
>If you are writing some client code, presumably all you care about is
>that the object you receive supports certain interfaces X, Y and Z
>that you are using. It wouldn't seem to matter at all what -other-
>interfaces it supports.

I had a horrified reaction to the idea of looping over X, Y, and Z
wrapped around a try/except.  Because Clark is now changing the
exception to None, my point is considerably less important.
-- 
                      --- Aahz  <*>  (Copyright 2001 by aahz at pobox.com)

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