i don't like the current super() at all. having to type super(Foo, self).__init__(...) is messy, hard to remember, and error-prone. it also introduces an unfortunate dependency in that the name of the class (Foo) has to be hard-coded in the call, and if you change the class name you also have to go and change all super() calls -- more chances for errors. as a result, i imagine there's a strong urge to just hardcode the name of the parent -- a bad idea, and the reason why super() was introduced in the first place.
instead, `super' should work like in other languages. a couple of ideas: -- super.meth(args) calls the superclass method `meth', in the same way that super(Foo, self).meth(args) currently works. (this is the same syntax as in java. this probably requires making `super' be a keyword, although it might be possible to hack this by examining the current call stack.) -- as an alternative or in addition, super(args) would work like super.meth(args) if we're currently inside of `meth' in a subclass. i suspect that 90% of the time or more, `super' is used to chain to the superclass version of an overridden method, and this optimizes for the common case. it makes for one less possibility of misspelling `__init__' and one less thing that requires renaming if a method is renamed or code copied to another method (granted, this isn't such a big deal as in the case of class renaming). if the form `super.meth(args)' isn't also supported, then a call of this sort would have to be made through the introspection API. (i think it would be a good idea to have this functionality available through the introspection API, in any case. currently i don't see any obvious way in module `inspect' to find out which class a call to `super(...).meth(...)' is invoked on, although maybe a loop with inspect.getmro() and hasattr() would work. it would be nice to have a function like inspect.getsuper(class, 'meth'), i think.) ben _______________________________________________ Python-Dev mailing list Python-Dev@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com
