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Extension Classes, Python Extension Types Become Classes
Jim Fulton, Digital Creations, L.L.C.
jim@digicool.com
Abstract
A lightweight mechanism, named "ExtensionClass",
http://www.digicool.com/releases/ExtensionClass/ExtensionClass-1.0.1.tar.gz,
has been developed for making Python
extension types more class-like. Classes can be developed in an
extension language, such as C or C++, and these classes can be
treated like other python classes:
- They can be sub-classed in python,
- They provide access to method documentation strings, and
- They can be used to directly create new instances.
An example class shows how extension classes are implemented and how
they differ from extension types.
Extension classes provide additional extensions to class and
instance semantics, including:
- A protocol for accessing subobjects "in the context of" their
containers. This is used to implement custom method types
and environmental acquisition.
- A protocol for overriding method call semantics. This is used
to implement "synchonized" classes and could be used to
implement argument type checking.
- A protocol for class initialization that supports execution of a
special '__class_init__' method after a class has been
initialized.
Extension classes illustrate how the Python class mechanism can be
extended and may provide a basis for improved or specialized class
models.
Problem
Currently, Python provides two ways of defining new kinds of objects:
- Python classes
- Extension types
Each approach has it's strengths. Extension types provide much greater
control to the programmer and, generally, better performance. Because
extension types are written in C, the programmer has greater access to
external resources. (Note that Python's use of the term type has
little to do with the notion of type as a formal specification.)
Classes provide a higher level of abstraction and are generally much
easier to develop. Classes provide full inheritance support, while
support for inheritance when developing extension types is very
limited. Classes provide run-time meta-data, such as method documentation
strings, that are useful for documentation and discovery. Classes
act as factories for creating instances, while separate functions
must be provided to create instances of types.
It would be useful to combine the features of the two approaches. It
would be useful to be able to have better support for inheritance for
types, or to be able to subclass from types in Python. It would be
useful to be able to have class-like meta-data support for types and
the ability to construct instances directly from types.
Our software is developed in Python. When necessary, we convert
debugged Python routines and classes to C for improved
performance. In most cases, a small number of methods in a class
is responsible for most of the computation. It should be possible
to convert only these methods to C, while leaving the other method
in Python. A natural way to approach this is to create a base
class in C that contains only the performance-critical aspects of
a class' implementation and mix this base class into a Python
class.
We have need, in a number of projects, for semantics that are
slightly different than the usual class and instance semantics,
yet we don't want to do most of our development in C. For
example, we have developed a persistence mechanism [1] that
redefines '__getattr__' and '__setattr__' to take storage-related
actions when object state is accessed or modified. We want to be
able to take certain actions on *every* attribute reference, but
for python class instances, '__getattr__' is only called when
attribute lookup fails by normal means.
As another example, we would like to have greater control over how
methods are bound. Currently, when accessing a class
instance attribute, the attribute value is bound together with the
instance in a method object *if and only if* the attribute value is a
python function. For some applications, we might also want to be
able to bind extension functions, or other types of callable
objects, such as HTML document templates [2]. Furthermore,
we might want to have greater control over how objects are bound.
For example, we might want to bind instances and callable objects
with special method objects that assure that no more than one thread
accesses the object or method at one time.
We can provide these special semantics in extension types, but we
wish to provide them for classes developed in Python.
Background
At the first Python Workshop, Don Beaudry presented work [3] done
at V.I. Corp to integrate Python with C++ frameworks. This system
provided a number of important features, including:
- Definition of extension types that provide class-like meta-data
and that can be called to create instances.
- Ability to subclass in python from C types.
- Ability to define classes in python who's data are stored as
C structures rather than in dictionaries to better interface to
C and C++ libraries, and for better performance.
- Less dynamic data structures. In particular, the data structure
for a class is declared during class definition.
- Support for enumeration types.
This work was not released, initially.
Shortly after the workshop, changes were made to Python to support
the sub-classing features described in [3]. These changes were not
documented until the fourth Python Workshop [4].
At the third Python workshop, I presented some work I had done on
generating module documentation for extension types. Based on the
discussion at this workshop, I developed a meta-type proposal [5].
This meta-type proposal was for an object that simply stored
meta-information for a type, for the purpose of generating module
documentation.
In the summer of 1996, Don Beaudry released the system described in
[3] under the name MESS [6]. MESS addresses a number of needs but
has a few drawbacks:
- Only single inheritance is supported.
- The mechanisms for defining MESS extension types is very different
from and more complicated than the standard Python type creation
mechanism.
- Defining MESS types requires the use of an extensive C
applications programming interface. This presents problems for
configuring dynamically-loaded extension modules unless the MESS
library is linked into the Python interpreter.
- Because the system tries to do a number of different things, it is
fairly large, about 15,000 lines.
- There is very little documentation, especially for the C
programming interface.
- The system is a work in progress, with a number of outstanding
bugs.
As MESS matures, we expect most of these problems to be addressed.
Extension Classes
To meet short term needs for a C-based persistence mechanism [1], an
extension class module was developed using the mechanism described
in [4] and building on ideas from MESS [6]. The extension class module
recasts extension types as "extension classes" by seeking to
eliminate, or at least reduce semantic differences between types and
classes. The module was designed to meet the following goal:
- Provide class-like behavior for extension types, including
interfaces for meta information and for constructing instances.
- Support sub-classing in Python from extension classes, with support
for multiple inheritance.
- Provide a small hardened implementation that can be used for
current products.
- Provide a mechanism that requires minimal modification to existing
extension types.
- Provide a basis for research on alternative semantics for classes
and inheritance.
Base extension classes and extension subclasses
Base extension classes are implemented in C. Extension subclasses
are implemented in Python and inherit, directly or indirectly from
one or more base extension classes. An extension subclass may
inherit from base extension classes, extension subclasses, and
ordinary python classes. The usual inheritance order rules
apply. Currently, extension subclasses must conform to the
following two rules:
- The first super class listed in the class statement defining an
extension subclass must be either a base extension class or an
extension subclass. This restriction will be removed in
Python-1.5.
- At most one base extension direct or indirect super class may
define C data members. If an extension subclass inherits from
multiple base extension classes, then all but one must be mix-in
classes that provide extension methods but no data.
Meta Information
Like standard python classes, extension classes have the following
attributes containing meta-data:
'__doc__' -- a documentation string for the class,
'__name__' -- the class name,
'__bases__' -- a sequence of base classes,
'__dict__' -- a class dictionary.
The class dictionary provides access to unbound methods and their
documentation strings, including extension methods and special
methods, such as methods that implement sequence and numeric
protocols. Unbound methods can be called with instance first
arguments.
Subclass instance data
Extension subclass instances have instance dictionaries, just
like Python class instances do. When fetching attribute values,
extension class instances will first try to obtain data from the
base extension class data structure, then from the instance
dictionary, then from the class dictionary, and finally from base
classes. When setting attributes, extension classes first attempt
to use extension base class attribute setting operations, and if
these fail, then data are placed in the instance dictionary.
Implementing base extension classes
A base extension class is implemented in much the same way that an
extension type is implemented, except:
- The include file, 'ExtensionClass.h', must be included.
- The type structure is declared to be of type 'PyExtensionClass', rather
than of type 'PyTypeObject'.
- The type structure has an additional member that must be defined
after the documentation string. This extra member is a method chain
('PyMethodChain') containing a linked list of method definition
('PyMethodDef') lists. Method chains can be used to implement
method inheritance in C. Most extensions don't use method chains,
but simply define method lists, which are null-terminated arrays
of method definitions. A macro, 'METHOD_CHAIN' is defined in
'ExtensionClass.h' that converts a method list to a method chain.
(See the example below.)
- Module functions that create new instances must be replaced by
'__init__' methods that initialize, but does not create storage for
instances.
- The extension class must be initialized and exported to the module
with::
PyExtensionClass_Export(d,"name",type);
where 'name' is the module name and 'type' is the extension class
type object.
Attribute lookup
Attribute lookup is performed by calling the base extension class
'getattr' operation for the base extension class that includes C
data, or for the first base extension class, if none of the base
extension classes include C data. 'ExtensionClass.h' defines a
macro 'Py_FindAttrString' that can be used to find an object's
attributes that are stored in the object's instance dictionary or
in the object's class or base classes::
v = Py_FindAttrString(self,name);
where 'name' is a C string containing the attribute name.
In addition, a macro is provided that replaces 'Py_FindMethod'
calls with logic to perform the same sort of lookup that is
provided by 'Py_FindAttrString'.
If an attribute name is contained in a Python string object,
rather than a C string object, then the macro 'Py_FindAttr' should
be used to look up an attribute value.
Linking
The extension class mechanism was designed to be useful with
dynamically linked extension modules. Modules that implement
extension classes do not have to be linked against an extension
class library. The macro 'PyExtensionClass_Export' imports the
'ExtensionClass' module and uses objects imported from this module
to initialize an extension class with necessary behavior.
Example: MultiMapping objects
As an example, consider an extension class that implements a
"MultiMapping". A multi-mapping is an object that encapsulates 0
or more mapping objects. When an attempt is made to lookup an
object, the encapsulated mapping objects are searched until an
object is found.
Consider an implementation of a MultiMapping extension type,
without use of the extension class mechanism::
#include "Python.h"
#define UNLESS(E) if(!(E))
typedef struct {
PyObject_HEAD
PyObject *data;
} MMobject;
staticforward PyTypeObject MMtype;
static PyObject *
MM_push(MMobject *self, PyObject *args){
PyObject *src;
UNLESS(PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "O", &src)) return NULL;
UNLESS(-1 != PyList_Append(self->data,src)) return NULL;
Py_INCREF(Py_None);
return Py_None;
}
static PyObject *
MM_pop(MMobject *self, PyObject *args){
long l;
PyObject *r;
static PyObject *emptyList=0;
UNLESS(emptyList) UNLESS(emptyList=PyList_New(0)) return NULL;
UNLESS(PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "")) return NULL;
UNLESS(-1 != (l=PyList_Size(self->data))) return NULL;
l--;
UNLESS(r=PySequence_GetItem(self->data,l)) return NULL;
UNLESS(-1 != PyList_SetSlice(self->data,l,l+1,emptyList)) goto err;
return r;
err:
Py_DECREF(r);
return NULL;
}
static struct PyMethodDef MM_methods[] = {
{"push", (PyCFunction) MM_push, 1,
"push(mapping_object) -- Add a data source"},
{"pop", (PyCFunction) MM_pop, 1,
"pop() -- Remove and return the last data source added"},
{NULL, NULL} /* sentinel */
};
static PyObject *
newMMobject(PyObject *ignored, PyObject *args){
MMobject *self;
UNLESS(PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "")) return NULL;
UNLESS(self = PyObject_NEW(MMobject, &MMtype)) return NULL;
UNLESS(self->data=PyList_New(0)) goto err;
return (PyObject *)self;
err:
Py_DECREF(self);
return NULL;
}
static void
MM_dealloc(MMobject *self){
Py_XDECREF(self->data);
PyMem_DEL(self);
}
static PyObject *
MM_getattr(MMobject *self, char *name){
return Py_FindMethod(MM_methods, (PyObject *)self, name);
}
static int
MM_length(MMobject *self){
long l=0, el, i;
PyObject *e=0;
UNLESS(-1 != (i=PyList_Size(self->data))) return -1;
while(--i >= 0)
{
e=PyList_GetItem(self->data,i);
UNLESS(-1 != (el=PyObject_Length(e))) return -1;
l+=el;
}
return l;
}
static PyObject *
MM_subscript(MMobject *self, PyObject *key){
long i;
PyObject *e;
UNLESS(-1 != (i=PyList_Size(self->data))) return NULL;
while(--i >= 0)
{
e=PyList_GetItem(self->data,i);
if(e=PyObject_GetItem(e,key)) return e;
PyErr_Clear();
}
PyErr_SetObject(PyExc_KeyError,key);
return NULL;
}
static PyMappingMethods MM_as_mapping = {
(inquiry)MM_length, /*mp_length*/
(binaryfunc)MM_subscript, /*mp_subscript*/
(objobjargproc)NULL, /*mp_ass_subscript*/
};
/* -------------------------------------------------------- */
static char MMtype__doc__[] =
"MultiMapping -- Combine multiple mapping objects for lookup"
;
static PyTypeObject MMtype = {
PyObject_HEAD_INIT(&PyType_Type)
0, /*ob_size*/
"MultMapping", /*tp_name*/
sizeof(MMobject), /*tp_basicsize*/
0, /*tp_itemsize*/
/* methods */
(destructor)MM_dealloc, /*tp_dealloc*/
(printfunc)0, /*tp_print*/
(getattrfunc)MM_getattr, /*tp_getattr*/
(setattrfunc)0, /*tp_setattr*/
(cmpfunc)0, /*tp_compare*/
(reprfunc)0, /*tp_repr*/
0, /*tp_as_number*/
0, /*tp_as_sequence*/
&MM_as_mapping, /*tp_as_mapping*/
(hashfunc)0, /*tp_hash*/
(ternaryfunc)0, /*tp_call*/
(reprfunc)0, /*tp_str*/
/* Space for future expansion */
0L,0L,0L,0L,
MMtype__doc__ /* Documentation string */
};
static struct PyMethodDef MultiMapping_methods[] = {
{"MultiMapping", (PyCFunction)newMMobject, 1,
"MultiMapping() -- Create a new empty multi-mapping"},
{NULL, NULL} /* sentinel */
};
void
initMultiMapping(){
PyObject *m;
m = Py_InitModule4(
"MultiMapping", MultiMapping_methods,
"MultiMapping -- Wrap multiple mapping objects for lookup",
(PyObject*)NULL,PYTHON_API_VERSION);
if (PyErr_Occurred())
Py_FatalError("can't initialize module MultiMapping");
}
This module defines an extension type, 'MultiMapping', and exports a
module function, 'MultiMapping', that creates 'MultiMapping'
Instances. The type provides two methods, 'push', and 'pop', for
adding and removing mapping objects to the multi-mapping.
The type provides mapping behavior, implementing mapping length
and subscript operators but not mapping a subscript assignment
operator.
Now consider an extension class implementation of MultiMapping
objects::
#include "Python.h"
#include "ExtensionClass.h"
#define UNLESS(E) if(!(E))
typedef struct {
PyObject_HEAD
PyObject *data;
} MMobject;
staticforward PyExtensionClass MMtype;
static PyObject *
MM_push(self, args)
MMobject *self;
PyObject *args;
{
PyObject *src;
UNLESS(PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "O", &src)) return NULL;
UNLESS(-1 != PyList_Append(self->data,src)) return NULL;
Py_INCREF(Py_None);
return Py_None;
}
static PyObject *
MM_pop(self, args)
MMobject *self;
PyObject *args;
{
long l;
PyObject *r;
static PyObject *emptyList=0;
UNLESS(emptyList) UNLESS(emptyList=PyList_New(0)) return NULL;
UNLESS(PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "")) return NULL;
UNLESS(-1 != (l=PyList_Size(self->data))) return NULL;
l--;
UNLESS(r=PySequence_GetItem(self->data,l)) return NULL;
UNLESS(-1 != PyList_SetSlice(self->data,l,l+1,emptyList)) goto err;
return r;
err:
Py_DECREF(r);
return NULL;
}
static PyObject *
MM__init__(self, args)
MMobject *self;
PyObject *args;
{
UNLESS(PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "")) return NULL;
UNLESS(self->data=PyList_New(0)) goto err;
Py_INCREF(Py_None);
return Py_None;
err:
Py_DECREF(self);
return NULL;
}
static struct PyMethodDef MM_methods[] = {
{"__init__", (PyCFunction)MM__init__, 1,
"__init__() -- Create a new empty multi-mapping"},
{"push", (PyCFunction) MM_push, 1,
"push(mapping_object) -- Add a data source"},
{"pop", (PyCFunction) MM_pop, 1,
"pop() -- Remove and return the last data source added"},
{NULL, NULL} /* sentinel */
};
static void
MM_dealloc(self)
MMobject *self;
{
Py_XDECREF(self->data);
PyMem_DEL(self);
}
static PyObject *
MM_getattr(self, name)
MMobject *self;
char *name;
{
return Py_FindMethod(MM_methods, (PyObject *)self, name);
}
static int
MM_length(self)
MMobject *self;
{
long l=0, el, i;
PyObject *e=0;
UNLESS(-1 != (i=PyList_Size(self->data))) return -1;
while(--i >= 0)
{
e=PyList_GetItem(self->data,i);
UNLESS(-1 != (el=PyObject_Length(e))) return -1;
l+=el;
}
return l;
}
static PyObject *
MM_subscript(self, key)
MMobject *self;
PyObject *key;
{
long i;
PyObject *e;
UNLESS(-1 != (i=PyList_Size(self->data))) return NULL;
while(--i >= 0)
{
e=PyList_GetItem(self->data,i);
if(e=PyObject_GetItem(e,key)) return e;
PyErr_Clear();
}
PyErr_SetObject(PyExc_KeyError,key);
return NULL;
}
static PyMappingMethods MM_as_mapping = {
(inquiry)MM_length, /*mp_length*/
(binaryfunc)MM_subscript, /*mp_subscript*/
(objobjargproc)NULL, /*mp_ass_subscript*/
};
/* -------------------------------------------------------- */
static char MMtype__doc__[] =
"MultiMapping -- Combine multiple mapping objects for lookup"
;
static PyExtensionClass MMtype = {
PyObject_HEAD_INIT(&PyType_Type)
0, /*ob_size*/
"MultMapping", /*tp_name*/
sizeof(MMobject), /*tp_basicsize*/
0, /*tp_itemsize*/
/* methods */
(destructor)MM_dealloc, /*tp_dealloc*/
(printfunc)0, /*tp_print*/
(getattrfunc)MM_getattr, /*tp_getattr*/
(setattrfunc)0, /*tp_setattr*/
(cmpfunc)0, /*tp_compare*/
(reprfunc)0, /*tp_repr*/
0, /*tp_as_number*/
0, /*tp_as_sequence*/
&MM_as_mapping, /*tp_as_mapping*/
(hashfunc)0, /*tp_hash*/
(ternaryfunc)0, /*tp_call*/
(reprfunc)0, /*tp_str*/
/* Space for future expansion */
0L,0L,0L,0L,
MMtype__doc__, /* Documentation string */
METHOD_CHAIN(MM_methods)
};
static struct PyMethodDef MultiMapping_methods[] = {
{NULL, NULL} /* sentinel */
};
void
initMultiMapping()
{
PyObject *m, *d;
m = Py_InitModule4(
"MultiMapping", MultiMapping_methods,
"MultiMapping -- Wrap multiple mapping objects for lookup",
(PyObject*)NULL,PYTHON_API_VERSION);
d = PyModule_GetDict(m);
PyExtensionClass_Export(d,"MultiMapping",MMtype);
if (PyErr_Occurred())
Py_FatalError("can't initialize module MultiMapping");
}
This version includes 'ExtensionClass.h'. The two declarations of
'MMtype' have been changed from 'PyTypeObject' to 'PyExtensionClass'.
The 'METHOD_CHAIN' macro has been used to add methods to the end of
the definition for 'MMtype'. The module function, newMMobject has
been replaced by the 'MMtype' method, 'MM__init__'. Note that this
method does not create or return a new object. Finally, the lines::
d = PyModule_GetDict(m);
PyExtensionClass_Export(d,"MultiMapping",MMtype);
Have been added to both initialize the extension class and to export
it in the module dictionary.
To use this module, compile, link, and import it as with any other
extension module. The following python code illustrates the
module's use::
from MultiMapping import MultiMapping
m=MultiMapping()
m.push({'spam':1, 'eggs':2})
m.push({'spam':3, 'ham':4})
m['spam'] # returns 3
m['ham'] # returns 4
m['foo'] # raises a key error
Creating the 'MultiMapping' object took three steps, one to create
an empty 'MultiMapping', and two to add mapping objects to it. We
might wish to simplify the process of creating MultiMapping
objects by providing a constructor that takes source mapping
objects as parameters. We can do this by sub-classing MultiMapping
in Python::
from MultiMapping import MultiMapping
class ExtendedMultiMapping(MultiMapping):
def __init__(self,*data):
MultiMapping.__init__(self)
for d in data: self.push(d)
m=ExtendedMultiMapping({'spam':1, 'eggs':2}, {'spam':3, 'ham':4})
m['spam'] # returns 3
m['ham'] # returns 4
m['foo'] # raises a key error
Implementing base extension class constructors
Some care should be taken when implementing or overriding base
class constructors. When a Python class overrides a base class
constructor and fails to call the base class constructor, a
program using the class may fail, but it will not crash the
interpreter. On the other hand, an extension subclass that
overrides a constructor in an extension base class must call the
extension base class constructor or risk crashing the interpreter.
This is because the base class constructor may set C pointers that,
if not set properly, will cause the interpreter to crash when
accessed. This is the case with the 'MultiMapping' extension base
class shown in the example above.
If no base class constructor is provided, extension class instance
memory will be initialized to 0. It is a good idea to design
extension base classes so that instance methods check for
uninitialized memory and perform initialialization if necessary.
This was not done above to simplify the example.
Overriding methods inherited from Python base classes
A problem occurs when trying to overide methods inherited from
Python base classes. Consider the following example::
from ExtensionClass import Base
class Spam:
def __init__(self, name):
self.name=name
class ECSpam(ExtensionClass.Base, Spam):
def __init__(self, name, favorite_color):
Spam.__init__(self,name)
self.favorite_color=favorite_color
This implementation will fail when an 'ECSpam' object is
instantiated. The problem is that 'ECSpam.__init__' calls
'Spam.__init__', and 'Spam.__init__' can only be called with a
Python instance (an object of type '"instance"') as the first
argument. The first argument passed to 'Spam.__init__' will be an
'ECSpam' instance (an object of type 'ECSPam').
To overcome this problem, extension classes provide a class method
'inheritedAttribute' that can be used to obtain an inherited
attribute that is suitable for calling with an extension class
instance. Using the 'inheritedAttribute' method, the above
example can be rewritten as::
from ExtensionClass import Base
class Spam:
def __init__(self, name):
self.name=name
class ECSpam(ExtensionClass.Base, Spam):
def __init__(self, name, favorite_color):
ECSpam.inheritedAttribute('__init__')(self,name)
self.favorite_color=favorite_color
This isn't as pretty but does provide the desired result.
New class and instance semantics
Context Wrapping
It is sometimes useful to be able to wrap up an object together
with a containing object. I call this "context wrapping"
because an object is accessed in the context of the object it is
accessed through.
We have found two applications for this:
- User-defined method objects, and
- Acquisition
User-defined method objects
Python classes wrap Python function attributes into methods. When a
class has a function attribute that is accessed as an instance
attribute, a method object is created and returned that contains
references to the original function and instance. When the method
is called, the original function is called with the instance as the
first argument followed by any arguments passed to the method.
Extension classes provide a similar mechanism for attributes that
are Python functions or inherited extension functions. In
addition, if an extension class attribute is an instance of an
extension class that defines an '__of__' method, then when the
attribute is accessed through an instance, it's '__of__' method
will be called to create a bound method.
Consider the following example::
import ExtensionClass
class CustomMethod(ExtensionClass.Base):
def __call__(self,ob):
print 'a %s was called' % ob.__class__.__name__
class wrapper:
def __init__(self,m,o): self.meth, self.ob=m,o
def __call__(self): self.meth(self.ob)
def __of__(self,o): return self.wrapper(self,o)
class bar(ExtensionClass.Base):
hi=CustomMethod()
x=bar()
hi=x.hi()
Note that 'ExtensionClass.Base' is a base extension class that
provides very basic ExtensionClass behavior.
When run, this program outputs: 'a bar was called'.
Acquisition
Acquisition [7] is a mechanism that allows objects to obtain
attributes from their environment. It is similar to inheritence,
except that, rather than traversing an inheritence hierarchy
to obtain attributes, a containment hierarchy is traversed.
The ExtensionClass release include mix-in extension base
classes that can be used to add acquisition as a feature to
extension subclasses. These mix-in classes use the
context-wrapping feature to implement acquisition. Consider
the following example::
import ExtensionClass, Acquisition
class C(ExtensionClass.Base):
color='red'
class A(Acquisition.Implicit):
def report(self):
print self.color
a=A()
c=C()
c.a=A()
c.a.report() # prints 'red'
d=C()
d.color='green'
d.a=a
d.a.report() # prints 'green'
a.report() # raises an attribute error
The class 'A' inherits acquisition behavior from
'Acquisition.Implicit'. The object, 'a', "has" the color of
objects 'c' and 'd' when it is accessed through them, but it
has no color by itself. The object 'a' obtains attributes
from it's environment, where it's environment is defined by
the access path used to reach 'a'.
Two styles of acquisition are supported in the current
ExtensionClass release, implicit and explicit aquisition.
Implicit acquisition
Implicit acquisition is so name because it searches for
attributes from the environment automatically whenever an
attribute cannot be obtained directly from an object or
through inheritence.
An attribute may be implicitly acquired if it's name does
not begin with an underscore, '_'.
To support implicit acquisition, an object should inherit
from the mix-in class 'Acquisition.Implicit'.
Explicit Acquisition
When explicit acquisition is used, attributes are not
automatically obtained from the environment. Instead, the
method 'aquire' must be used, as in::
print c.a.acquire('color')
To support explicit acquisition, an object should inherit
from the mix-in class 'Acquisition.Explicit'.
Acquisition wrappers
When an object that supports acquisition is accessed through
an extension class instance, a special object, called an
acquisition wrapper, is returned. In the example above, the
expression 'c.a' returns an acquisition wrapper that
contains references to both 'c' and 'a'. It is this wrapper
that performs attribute lookup in 'c' when an attribute
cannot be found in 'a'.
Aquisition wrappers provide access to the wrapped objects
through the attributes 'aq_parent' and 'aq_self'. In the
example above, the expressions::
'c.a.aq_parent is c'
and::
'c.a.aq_self is a'
both evaluate to true, but the expression::
'c.a is a'
evaluates to false, because the expression 'c.a' evaluates
to an acquisition wrapper around 'c' and 'a', not 'a' inself.
Acquisition and methods
Python methods of objects that support acquisition can use
acquired attributes as in the above example. When a Python
method is called on an object that is wrapped by an
acquisition wrapper, the wrapper is passed to the method.
This rule also applies to user-defined method types.
Unfortunately, C methods cannot use aquired attributes at
this time.
Overriding method calls
Normally, when a method is called, the function wrapped by the
method is called directly by the method. In some cases, it is
useful for user-defined logic to participate in the actual
function call. Extension classes introduce a new protocol that
provides extension classes greater control over how their
methods are called. If an extension class defines a special
method, '__call_method__', then this method will be called to
call the functions (or other callable object) wrapped by the
method. The method. '__call_method__' should provide the same
interface as provided by the Python builtin 'apply' function.
For example, consider the expression: 'x.meth(arg1, arg2)'. The
expression is evaluated by first computing a method object that
wraps 'x' and the attribute of 'x' stored under the name 'meth'.
Assuming that 'x' has a '__call_method__' method defined, then
the '__call_method__' method of 'x' will be called with two
arguments, the attribute of 'x' stored under the name 'meth',
and a tuple containing 'x', 'arg1', and 'arg2'.
To see how this feature may be used, see the Python module,
'Syn.py', which is included in the ExtensionClass distribution.
This module provides a mix-in class that provides Java-like
"synchonized" classes that limit access to their methods to one
thread at a time.
An interesting application of this mechanism would be to
implement interface checking on method calls.
Class initialization
Normal Python class initialization is similar to but subtley
different from instance initialization. An instance '__init__'
function is called on an instance immediately *after* it is
created. An instance '__init__' function can use instance
information, like it's class and can pass the instance to other
functions. On the other hand, the code in class statements is
executed immediately *before* the class is created. This means
that the code in a class statement cannot use class attributes,
like '__bases__', or pass the class to functions.
Extension classes provide a mechanism for specifying code to be
run *after* a class has been created. If a class or one of it's
base classes defines a '__class_init__' method, then this method
will be called just after a class has been created. The one
argument passed to the method will be the class, *not* an
instance of the class.
Status
The current release of the extension class module is "1.0.1",
http://www.digicool.com/releases/ExtensionClass/ExtensionClass-1.0.1.tar.gz.
The core implementation has less than four thousand lines of code,
including comments. This release requires Python 1.4.
Installation
The ExtensionClass distribution now uses the "Universal Unix Makefile for
Python extensions", 'Makefile.pre.in', which was introduced as
part of Python1.4. A copy of this make file is included with this
release. See the instructions in the make file, itself.
Files
ExtensionClass.stx -- This file in structured text format
ExtensionClass.html -- This file in HTML format
README -- A file that says to read this file.
Makefile.pre.in -- The Universal Unix Makefile for Python
extensions
Setup -- a configuration file used by the Universal
Unix Makefile for Python extensions
ExtensionClass.c -- The ExtensionClass source
ExtensionClass.h -- The ExtensionClass header file
Acquisition.c -- The source for the 'Acquisition' module
that provides mix-in classes to support
environmental acquisition
MethodObject.c -- The source for the 'MethodObject' module
that provides a mix-in class for
user-defined method types. To create a
user-defined method type, just create an
extension subclass of
'MethodObject.MethodObject' that has an
'__call__' method.
Missing.c -- The source for the 'Missing' module
that provides a class for objects that
model "missing" or unknown data. Missing
objects have the property that all
mathematical operations yield a missing
value. This is included mainly as an
example (and test) of a numeric extension
base class.
MultiMapping.c -- The source for a slightly enhanced
'MultiMapping' module that is based on the
'MultiMapping' example given in this
paper. If present, document templates [2]
will take advantage of this module to
significantly increase rendering
performance.
Sync.py -- A Python module that provides a
'Synchonized' mix-in class that limits access
to an object's methods to one thread at a
time. This requires the installation of
the ThreadLock module.
ThreadLock.c -- The source for the 'ThreadLock' module that
provides 'ThreadLock' objects. These are
similar to the lock objects provided by
the 'thread' modules. Unlike normal
Python lock objects, 'ThreadLock' objects
can be acquired (and released) more than
once by the same thread.
In addition to the files listed above, several "test" modules are
included. These are modules that I used to test ExtensionClass.
They do not constitute a regression testing suit and I've made
little effort to assure that they actually work, although that
would be a good thing to do if time permits.
Release Notes
1.0 -- First non-beta release
This release is the result of a major rewrite and "hardening"
effort to increase performance and reliability. This version
is being used in several Digital Creations products, so if
parts are broken, we probably don't use them. :-)
This release also contains several new features and example
modules, including:
- Acquisition,
- Custom method calls,
- Class initialization protocol,
- A class method that makes it possible to explicitly call
Python base-class methods.
- A sample application of custom method calls that provides
Java-like synchronized classes that prevent more than one
thread from accessing an object's methods at one time.
Note that there is one known incompatibility with previous
releases. In previouse releases, the method used to support
context wrapping was named '__bind_to_object__'. The name of
this method was changed to '__of__' in this release and I do
not expect this name to change in the future.
1.0.1 -- Added functionality to and fixed bug in Missing module
- Fixed horible reference-counting bug
- Changed so that 'Missing.Value.spam(a1,a2,whatever)'
returns 'Missing.Value' for any method name (except
'__reduce__') and any arguments.
- Changed so that missing values are picklable. Note that
the special global, Missing.Value, is pickled in a
slightly more efficient manner than other missing values.
1.0.2
- Fixed bug in handling subclasses of Sequence objects.
- Fixed comparison bug in Missing objects.
Issues
There are a number of issues that came up in the course of this work
and that deserve mention.
- Currently, the class extension mechanism described in [4] requires
that the first superclass in a list of super-classes must be of the
extended class type. This may not be convenient if mix-in
behavior is desired. If a list of base classes starts with a
standard python class, but includes an extension class, then an
error is raised. It would be more useful if, when a list of base
classes contains one or more objects that are not python classes,
the first such object was used to control the extended class
definition. To get around this, the 'ExtensionClass' module exports
a base extension class, 'Base', that can be used as the first base
class in a list of base classes to assure that an extension
subclass is created.
This issue will go away with Python 1.5.
- Currently, only one base extension class can define any data in
C. The data layout of subclasses-instances is the same as for the
base class that defines data in C, except that the data structure
is extended to hold an instance dictionary. The data structure
begins with a standard python header, and extension methods expect
the C instance data to occur immediately after the object header. If
two or more base classes defined C data, the methods for the
different base classes would expect their data to be in the same
location. A solution might be to allocate base class instances and
store pointers to these instances in the subclass data structure.
The method binding mechanism would have to be a more complicated
to make sure that methods were bound to the correct base data
structure. Alternatively, the signature of C methods could be
expanded to allow pointers to expected class data to be passed
in addition to object pointers.
- There is currently no support for sub-classing in C, beyond that
provided by method chains..
- Rules for mixed-type arithmetic are different for python class
instances than they are for extension type instances. Python
classes can define right and left versions of numeric binary
operators, or they can define a coercion operator for converting
binary operator operands to a common type. For extension types,
only the latter, coercion-based, approach is supported. The
coercion-based approach does not work well for many data types for
which coercion rules depend on the operator. Because extension
classes are based on extension types, they are currently limited
to the coercion-based approach. It should be possible to
extend the extension class implementation to allow both types of
mixed-type arithmetic control.
- I considered making extension classes immutable, meaning that
class attributes could not be set after class creation. I also
considered making extension subclasses cache inherited
attributes. Both of these are related and attractive for some
applications, however, I decided that it would be better to retain
standard class instance semantics and provide these features as
options at a later time.
- It would be useful to be able to specify parameters that control
class creation, but that would otherwise not appear in the class
dictionary. For example, it would be useful to provide parameters
to control mutability of classes (not class instances), or to
turn on caching of inherited class attributes.
- The extension class module defines new method types to bind C and
python methods to extension class instances. It would be useful
for these method objects to provide access to function call
information, such as the number and names of arguments and the
number of defaults, by parsing extension function documentation
strings.
Applications
Aside from test and demonstration applications, the extension class
mechanism has been used to provide an extension-based implementation
of the persistence mechanism described in [1]. We have developed
this further to provide features such as automatic deactivation of
objects not used after some period of time and to provide more
efficient persistent-object cache management.
Acquisition has been heavily used in our recent products.
Synchonized classes have also been used in recent products.
Summary
The extension-class mechanism described here provides a way to add
class services to extension types. It allows:
- Sub-classing extension classes in Python,
- Construction of extension class instances by calling extension
classes,
- Extension classes to provide meta-data, such as unbound methods
and their documentation string.
In addition, the extension class module provides a relatively
concise example of the use of mechanisms that were added to Python
to support MESS [6], and that were described at the fourth Python
Workshop [4]. It is hoped that this will spur research in improved
and specialized models for class implementation in Python.
References
.. [1] Fulton, J., Providing Persistence for World-Wide-Web
Applications, Proceedings of the 5th Python Workshop.
http://www.digicool.com/papers/Persistence.html
.. [2] Page, R. and Cropper, S., Document Template, Proceedings of the
5th Python Workshop.
http://www.digicool.com/papers/DocumentTemplate.html
.. [3] Beaudry, D., Deriving Built-In Classes in Python, Proceedings of
the First International Python Workshop.
http://www.python.org/workshops/1994-11/BuiltInClasses/BuiltInClasses_1.html
.. [4] Van Rossum, G., Don Beaudry Hack - MESS, presented in the
Developer's Future Enhancements session of the 4th Python Workshop.
http://www.python.org/workshops/1996-06/notes/thursday.html
.. [5] Fulton, J., Meta-Type Object. This is a small proposal, the text
of which is contained in a sample implementation source file,
http://www.digicool.com/jim/MetaType.c.
.. [6] Beaudry, D., and Ascher, D., The Meta-Extension Set,
http://maigret.cog.brown.edu/pyutil/
.. [7] Gil, J., Lorenz, D., Environmental Acquisition--A New
Inheritance-Like Abstraction Mechanism, OOPSLA '96 Proceedings,
ACM SIG-PLAN, October, 1996
http://www.bell-labs.com/people/cope/oopsla/Oopsla96TechnicalProgramAbstracts.html#GilLorenz
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