Inheritence confusion (was Re: Deeply-nested class layout suggestions wanted)

[Robert Brewer]

Kirk Strauser wrote:
> As a final concrete example, I whipped up a few little 
> skeleton classes like
> so:
> 
>     Generic
>     |-- Subclass
>     |   |-- __init__.py
>     |   |-- a.py
>     |   `-- b.py
>     |-- __init__.py
>     |-- a.py
>     `-- b.py
> 
> Generic/a.py
> 
>     from b import b
> 
>     class a:
>         def __init__(self):
>             test = b()
> 
> Generic/b.py
> 
>     class b:
>         def __init__(self):
>             print 'In Generic.b'

If it were my code, I'd rewrite Generic/a.py as:

from Generic import b

class a(object):
    def __init__(self):
        test = b.b()

> I'm completely lost.  What do I have to do to get the 
> subclasses to use modules at their own level instead of where 
> the defined __init__ function happens to be?

Some options:

1) Override __init__ in the subclass.
2) Pass the correct module as an argument to init.
3) Perform ugly module-inspection hacks. Don't do this.

It would be a *lot* clearer if your example didn't re-use names in different modules. Try some other letters once in a while. :) It'll make your design clearer. Seriously, rewrite your example without duples and I can spare more brain cells on it.


Robert Brewer
MIS
Amor Ministries
fumanchu at amor.org