How can I define class methods outside of the class?

[Jeremy]

On Dec 1, 10:47 pm, James Mills <prolo... at shortcircuit.net.au> wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 3:36 PM, Jeremy <jlcon... at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I have some methods that I need (would like) to define outside of the
> > class.  I know this can be done by defining the function and then
> > setting it equal to some member of an instance of the class.  But,
> > because of the complexity of what I'm doing (I have to set many
> > functions as class methods) I would rather not do this.  Can someone
> > show me how to do this?  Is it even possible?  Can decorators be used
> > here?
>
> Do you mean something like this ?
>
> @classmethod
> def foo(cls):
>     print "I am the foo classmethod on %r" % cls
>
> class Foo(object):
>     pass
>
> Foo.foo = foo
>
> cheers
> James

Thanks, James.  That is almost exactly what I want.  However, I want
to avoid doing

Foo.foo = foo

Is this going to be possible?  I'm trying to understand how decorators
are used.  Are they really necessary in this example?

Thanks,
Jeremy