callable virtual method

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

Jean-Michel Pichavant a écrit :
(snip)

> Sometimes the base is doing cool stuff but incomplete stuff which 
> requires knowledge only hold by the sub class. In my case the interface 
> is a high level interface for a software that can run on multiple 
> hardware platforms. Only the sub class has knowledge on how to operate 
> the hardware, but no matter the hardware it still produces the same effect.
> 
> Let's say I have 50 different hardwares, I'll have 50 sub classes of 
> Interface with the 'start' method to define. It wouldn't be appropriate 
> (OO programming)to write 50 times '_log.debug('Starting %s' % self)' in 
> each child start method when the simple task of logging the call can be 
> nicely handled by the base class.

Which is exactly one of the use cases for the Template Method pattern in 
traditional OO design.

For the record, Python can offer other solutions to this kind of problem 
- like a combination of decorators and metaclasses.

> In the meantime, I must make sure  the user, who is not a python guru in 
> this case, has implemented the start method for his hardware,

whether he has to implement the 'start' or '_start' method doesn't make 
any difference here.