Extension Class
Copyright (C) 1996-1998, Digital Creations.
A lightweight mechanism 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.
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.
The current release is 1.2 To find out what's changed in this release, see the release notes.
Documentation is available on-line.
A win32 binary release, ec12.zip is available. This release includes all of the ExtensionClass modules built as Windows extension modules (.pyd) files. These were built for Python 1.5.1 using Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 in "Release" mode.