Python evangelists unite!

[Fernando Pérez]

brucehapman at hotmail.com wrote:

> Okay, I was extolling the benefits of Python to a friend of mine. He
> took strong exception to Python's OO model. <here we go again...>
> 

[snip]
> 
> So, I need some help. I've checked out c.l.p and some on-line
> articles, and I just can't find good practicle examples of a program
> that adds members to instances (or classes) at runtime. Anybody got
> any? I don't want to have to start avoiding my friend....
> 

I am currently working on a replacement for the python interpreter 
which depends *critically* on this. It allows the user to define 
special commands to control the interpreter and access the underlying 
shell on the fly, and this requires dynamical generation of method 
code (via exec with fancy tricks with string formatting) and then 
binding those methods on the fly to the currently running 
interpreter. Obviously you can do that in C with a heinous mess of 
pointer tables, but the point is, having those features available to 
me is the difference between actually producing the program vs. 
saying 'Obviously you can do that in C with a heinous mess of pointer 
tables' and never actually doing it (because it's so ugly and tricky).

I'm playing tons of strange tricks with namespaces, code 
introspection and dynamical changing of running code. I can't even 
begin to imagine how I would do some of those things in any language 
other than Python (yes,  I don't know Lisp. Shoot me.)

Cheers,

f.

ps. If curious, I think I'll announce the first beta of this around 
next week. It's almost ready.