mutually exclusive arguments to a constructor

[Adam Funk]

(Warning: this question obviously reflects the fact that I am more
accustomed to using Java than Python.)

Suppose I'm creating a class that represents a bearing or azimuth,
created either from a string of traditional bearing notation
("N24d30mE") or from a number indicating the angle in degrees as
usually measured in trigonometry (65.5, measured counter-clockwise
from the x-axis).  The class will have methods to return the same
bearing in various formats.

In Java, I would write two constructors, one taking a single String
argument and one taking a single Double argument.  But in Python, a
class can have only one __init__ method, although it can have a lot of
optional arguments with default values.  What's the correct way to
deal with a situation like the one I've outlined above?


-- 
Unix is a user-friendly operating system. It's just very choosy about
its friends.