enhancing/wrapping an existing instance of a duck

[Neville Dempsey]

What do I need to add to HTMLDecorator?

A simpler example:

import cgi

class ClassX(object):
  pass # ... with own __repr__

class ClassY(object):
  pass # ... with own __repr__

inst_x=ClassX()

inst_y=ClassY()

inst_z=[ i*i for i in range(25) ]

inst_b=True

class HTMLDecorator(object):
   def html(self): # an "enhanced" version of __repr__
       return cgi.escape(self.__repr__()).join(("<H1>","</H1>"))

print HTMLDecorator(inst_x).html()
print HTMLDecorator(inst_y).html()
wrapped_z = HTMLDecorator(inst_z)
inst_z[0] += 70
wrapped_z[0] += 71
print wrapped_z.html()
print HTMLDecorator(inst_b).html()

Output:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "html.py", line 21, in <module>
    print HTMLDecorator(inst_x).html()
TypeError: default __new__ takes no parameters

Can I simply decorate an existing instance?

Cheers
N