Re: name lookup failure using metaclasses with unittests
Am 11.04.2013 10:19, schrieb Steven D'Aprano: if sys.version = '3': Use sys.version_info = (3,), otherwise your code breaks when upgrading to Python 10 and greater. ;^) The second question that came up was if there is a way to keep a metaclass defined inside the class or if the only way is to provide it externally. [...] Not in general, since the metaclass has to exist independently of the class. Thanks for your explanations, they are appreciated. The class is an instance of your metaclass. That means that the metaclass must exist first, so it can be instantiated when you define the class. I don't like the approach to define the code to post-process a class before defining the class. It's a bit like top-posting, it messes up the reading order. Since I really intend to post-process the class, it seems that metaclasses are simply not the right tool. At the moment, this leaves me with two options: 1. post-process the class class X: pass # attach constants to clas X for i in (1, 2, 3): setattr(X, 'f{}' % i, i) 2. generate code inline class Y: pass # generate constants in local (class-)namespace for i in (1, 2, 3): locals()['f{}' % i] = i In both cases, variables (loop variable 'i') are leaked into the surrounding namespace, which is kind-of ugly. The second approach also seems a bit hackish and I can't use the class-in-definition there, which is limiting when you want to attach e.g. constants of type X to X. Also PEP 3115 Metaclasses in Python 3000[2] seems to consider postprocessing of a class definition as better handled by a class decorator, which is something I haven't looked at yet. Generally, class decorators are less brain-melting than metaclasses. Alas, they also need to be defined before the class, messing with the mentioned order of declaration. They can be used to call a class function though which then does the necessary postprocessing... 3. post-process the class triggered with decorator def postprocess_class(cls): invoke postprocess() on the decorated object cls.postprocess() del cls.postprocess return cls @postprocess_class class Z: @classfunction def postprocess(cls): # attach constants to class for i in (1, 2, 3): setattr(cls, 'f{}' % i, i) I guess I'll stay with variant 1 for now, since it requires the least amount of code and the least amount of questions from other developers here. Thanks everybody! Uli -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: name lookup failure using metaclasses with unittests
On 4/12/2013 3:17 AM, Ulrich Eckhardt wrote: Am 11.04.2013 10:19, schrieb Steven D'Aprano: if sys.version = '3': Use sys.version_info = (3,), otherwise your code breaks when upgrading to Python 10 and greater. ;^) The second question that came up was if there is a way to keep a metaclass defined inside the class or if the only way is to provide it externally. [...] Not in general, since the metaclass has to exist independently of the class. Thanks for your explanations, they are appreciated. The class is an instance of your metaclass. That means that the metaclass must exist first, so it can be instantiated when you define the class. I don't like the approach to define the code to post-process a class before defining the class. It's a bit like top-posting, it messes up the reading order. Since I really intend to post-process the class, it seems that metaclasses are simply not the right tool. Using a post-processing object as a metaclass or decorator necessarily requires predefinition. Such objects are usually used more than once. For one-off postprocessing, I probably would not bother. At the moment, this leaves me with two options: 1. post-process the class class X: pass # attach constants to clas X for i in (1, 2, 3): setattr(X, 'f{}' % i, i) 2. generate code inline class Y: pass # generate constants in local (class-)namespace for i in (1, 2, 3): locals()['f{}' % i] = i Mutating class locals() currently works in CPython, but is explicitly not guaranteed to work by the language definition. In both cases, variables (loop variable 'i') are leaked into the surrounding namespace, which is kind-of ugly. The second approach also seems a bit hackish and I can't use the class-in-definition there, which is limiting when you want to attach e.g. constants of type X to X. Also PEP 3115 Metaclasses in Python 3000[2] seems to consider postprocessing of a class definition as better handled by a class decorator, which is something I haven't looked at yet. Generally, class decorators are less brain-melting than metaclasses. Alas, they also need to be defined before the class, messing with the mentioned order of declaration. They can be used to call a class function though which then does the necessary postprocessing... 3. post-process the class triggered with decorator def postprocess_class(cls): invoke postprocess() on the decorated object cls.postprocess() del cls.postprocess return cls @postprocess_class class Z: @classfunction def postprocess(cls): # attach constants to class for i in (1, 2, 3): setattr(cls, 'f{}' % i, i) I guess I'll stay with variant 1 for now, since it requires the least amount of code and the least amount of questions from other developers here. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: name lookup failure using metaclasses with unittests
Am 10.04.2013 11:52, schrieb Peter Otten: Ulrich Eckhardt wrote: [...] It looks like this particular invocation relies on class attribute and function __name__ being identical. Please file a bug report. Thanks for confirming this and reducing the test case even more. Now, concerning Python 3, it fails to detect any test case at all! My guess is that the unittest library was changed to use metaclasses itself in order to detect classes derived from unittest.TestCase. Therefore, overriding the metaclass breaks test case discovery. My question in that context is how do I extend metaclasses instead of overriding it? In other words, what is the equivalent to super() for class creation? Python 3 does not recognize the __metaclass__ attribute as the metaclass. You need to provide it like so: def __metaclass__(name, bases, dict): ... class X(unittest.TestCase, metaclass=__metaclass__): pass :| Doing some research[0, 1] on metaclasses in 2 and 3, I have a few more questions... The first thing I was wondering was why Python doesn't complain about a class property that is marked as special (leading and trailing double underscores) but that it knows nothing about. Worse, Python 3 should be aware of its legacy and recognize the Python 2 metaclass syntax, even if only to reject it loudly. I'm pretty sure there is a reason for that, The second question that came up was if there is a way to keep a metaclass defined inside the class or if the only way is to provide it externally. The reason I like this in-class definition is that for my case of autogenerated test functions, everything is in one place which used to be in a loop that modified the class after its creation. Maybe I'm just too brainwashed by static languages though. To get the Python2 feeling back, I have a hack in mind that involves creating a baseclass which in turn provides a metaclass that invokes a specific function to post-initialize the class, similar to the way Python 2 does it automatically, but I'm wondering if there isn't anything better. Also PEP 3115 Metaclasses in Python 3000[2] seems to consider postprocessing of a class definition as better handled by a class decorator, which is something I haven't looked at yet. Greetings from Hamburg! Uli [0] http://mikewatkins.ca/2008/11/29/python-2-and-3-metaclasses/ [1] http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=236234 [2] http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3115/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: name lookup failure using metaclasses with unittests
Am 10.04.2013 11:52, schrieb Peter Otten: It looks like this particular invocation relies on class attribute and function __name__ being identical. Please file a bug report. http://bugs.python.org/issue17696 Uli -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: name lookup failure using metaclasses with unittests
On Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:43:58 +0200, Ulrich Eckhardt wrote: The first thing I was wondering was why Python doesn't complain about a class property that is marked as special (leading and trailing double underscores) but that it knows nothing about. Because that breaks backward compatibility. You write a class in Python 2.6 or 2.7, and make it backward compatible with 2.5: class MyIterator(object): def __next__(self): ... next = __next__ Now you import it into Python 2.5, which has no idea about __next__ so it blows up. (For no good reason, since __next__ is harmless in 2.5.) Worse, Python 3 should be aware of its legacy and recognize the Python 2 metaclass syntax, even if only to reject it loudly. I'm pretty sure there is a reason for that, That will break any future re-use of __metaclass__. It will also make version agnostic code much harder: class Meta(type): ... if sys.version = '3': kwargs = {'metaclass': Meta} else: kwargs = {} class MyClass(object, **kwargs): __metaclass__ = Meta The second question that came up was if there is a way to keep a metaclass defined inside the class or if the only way is to provide it externally. The reason I like this in-class definition is that for my case of autogenerated test functions, everything is in one place which used to be in a loop that modified the class after its creation. Maybe I'm just too brainwashed by static languages though. Not in general, since the metaclass has to exist independently of the class. The class is an instance of your metaclass. That means that the metaclass must exist first, so it can be instantiated when you define the class. However, there is a loophole: Python's metaclass machinery is actually more general than just class-of-classes. The metaclass doesn't have to be a class, it can be any callable with the same function signature as the three-argument version of type. So despite what I said above, you *can* embed the metaclass in the class, if the metaclass is a function created with lambda (or equivalent): # Python 2 version class MyClass(object): __metaclass__ = (lambda name, bases, dict: sys.stdout.write(Spam!\n) or type(name, bases, dict) ) # Python 3 version class MyClass(object, metaclass=lambda name, bases, dict: sys.stdout.write(Spam!\n) and type(name, bases, dict) ): pass But really, except as a trick, why would you do that? To get the Python2 feeling back, I have a hack in mind that involves creating a baseclass which in turn provides a metaclass that invokes a specific function to post-initialize the class, similar to the way Python 2 does it automatically, but I'm wondering if there isn't anything better. Seems awfully convoluted and complicated. Python 3 metaclasses work exactly the same as Python 2 metaclasses, except the syntax for declaring them is slightly different. So if you had this: class Meta(type): ... class MyClass: __metaclass__ = Meta ... just change it to this, and it should work exactly the same: class Meta(type): ... class MyClass(metaclass=Meta): ... Also PEP 3115 Metaclasses in Python 3000[2] seems to consider postprocessing of a class definition as better handled by a class decorator, which is something I haven't looked at yet. Generally, class decorators are less brain-melting than metaclasses. -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: name lookup failure using metaclasses with unittests
On 11 April 2013 07:43, Ulrich Eckhardt ulrich.eckha...@dominolaser.com wrote: The second question that came up was if there is a way to keep a metaclass defined inside the class or if the only way is to provide it externally. Yes, using metaclasses! I wouldn't recommend it though. Here's a proof of concept: class MyType(type): def __new__(meta, name, bases, attrs): try: metaclass = attrs.pop('__metaclass__') except KeyError: return type.__new__(meta, name, bases, attrs) else: return metaclass(name, bases, attrs) class MyObject(metaclass=MyType): pass class Test(MyObject): ... def __metaclass__(name, bases, attrs): ... print(Test metaclass) ... return MyType(name, bases, attrs) ... Test metaclass -- Arnaud -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
name lookup failure using metaclasses with unittests
Hi! I'm having problems using a metaclass to generate test functions. This works when I try to run all tests from the module or test case, but it fails when I'm trying to specify a single test function. My environment is Python 2.7.3 on MS Windows 7 at the moment. It should be upgraded to at least 2.7.4 or better to 3, but see the notes on Python 3 below. # my_module.py import unittest class X(unittest.TestCase): def __metaclass__(name, bases, dict): # attach function def test(self): pass dict['test_1'] = test dict['test_2'] = test # create class return type(name, bases, dict) The error when I'm trying to run python -m unittest my_module.X.test_1 is: Value error: no such test method in class 'my_module.X': test. The astonishing part is that it claims that test is not found while I asked it to run test_1. The name it complains about is the name of the function inside the metaclass function. In all other cases, like e.g. giving -v it reports the correct function name. My question here is whether I'm doing something wrong or whether I discovered a bug. Now, concerning Python 3, it fails to detect any test case at all! My guess is that the unittest library was changed to use metaclasses itself in order to detect classes derived from unittest.TestCase. Therefore, overriding the metaclass breaks test case discovery. My question in that context is how do I extend metaclasses instead of overriding it? In other words, what is the equivalent to super() for class creation? Thank you for your help! Uli -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: name lookup failure using metaclasses with unittests
Ulrich Eckhardt wrote: Hi! I'm having problems using a metaclass to generate test functions. This works when I try to run all tests from the module or test case, but it fails when I'm trying to specify a single test function. My environment is Python 2.7.3 on MS Windows 7 at the moment. It should be upgraded to at least 2.7.4 or better to 3, but see the notes on Python 3 below. # my_module.py import unittest class X(unittest.TestCase): def __metaclass__(name, bases, dict): # attach function def test(self): pass dict['test_1'] = test dict['test_2'] = test # create class return type(name, bases, dict) The error when I'm trying to run python -m unittest my_module.X.test_1 is: Value error: no such test method in class 'my_module.X': test. The astonishing part is that it claims that test is not found while I asked it to run test_1. The name it complains about is the name of the function inside the metaclass function. In all other cases, like e.g. giving -v it reports the correct function name. My question here is whether I'm doing something wrong or whether I discovered a bug. Here's a simpler demo of the problem: $ cat tmp.py import unittest class X(unittest.TestCase): def test_1(self): pass test_1.__name__ = test_2 $ python -m unittest -v tmp test_1 (tmp.X) ... ok -- Ran 1 test in 0.001s OK $ python -m unittest -v tmp.X.test_1 Traceback (most recent call last): File /usr/lib/python2.7/runpy.py, line 162, in _run_module_as_main __main__, fname, loader, pkg_name) File /usr/lib/python2.7/runpy.py, line 72, in _run_code exec code in run_globals File /usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/__main__.py, line 12, in module main(module=None) File /usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/main.py, line 94, in __init__ self.parseArgs(argv) File /usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/main.py, line 149, in parseArgs self.createTests() File /usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/main.py, line 158, in createTests self.module) File /usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/loader.py, line 128, in loadTestsFromNames suites = [self.loadTestsFromName(name, module) for name in names] File /usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/loader.py, line 109, in loadTestsFromName return self.suiteClass([parent(obj.__name__)]) File /usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/case.py, line 191, in __init__ (self.__class__, methodName)) ValueError: no such test method in class 'tmp.X': test_2 It looks like this particular invocation relies on class attribute and function __name__ being identical. Please file a bug report. Now, concerning Python 3, it fails to detect any test case at all! My guess is that the unittest library was changed to use metaclasses itself in order to detect classes derived from unittest.TestCase. Therefore, overriding the metaclass breaks test case discovery. My question in that context is how do I extend metaclasses instead of overriding it? In other words, what is the equivalent to super() for class creation? Python 3 does not recognize the __metaclass__ attribute as the metaclass. You need to provide it like so: def __metaclass__(name, bases, dict): ... class X(unittest.TestCase, metaclass=__metaclass__): pass -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list