Re: [Pyobjc-dev] Further evidence of the need to start over (fwd)

[Steven D. M. <sd...@mi...>]

[ Trying one more time to get this sent from the right machine so
  the mailing-list manager program will accept it! <groan> ]


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 19:52:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Steven D. Majewski <sd...@Vi...>
To: Bill Bumgarner <bb...@CO...>
Cc: Yves Starreveld <yst...@uw...>, pyo...@li...
Subject: Re: [Pyobjc-dev] Further evidence of the need to start over
Resent-Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 19:58:53 -0400 (EDT)
Resent-From: "Steven D. Majewski" <sd...@Vi...>
Resent-To: sd...@mi...
Resent-Subject: Re: [Pyobjc-dev] Further evidence of the need to start over



On Fri, 11 May 2001, Bill Bumgarner wrote:

> OK-- I "fixed" the problem with forwardInvocation: being invoked on
> NSProxy.   Was a matter of not passing -forwardInvocation: off to super
> in OC_PythonObject.m.
>
> It seems to kind of fix the problem.  However, after a couple of runs of
> HelloWorld.py, I'm no longer able to execute that script due to a Window
> Manager issue-- either with the original version or new version of
> OC_PythonObject.m.

I did this at one time in one of my experimental versions -- I had thought
I posted something about it, but it was probably before you started
up this list -- it may have been in one of my summaries to pythonmac-sig
-- or maybe I'm just imagining it!


I know I took it out before merging my changes into CVS.
I recall running some experiments with and without that patch --
I should still have some notes.

> As such, I really think we need to do two things:
>
> 	- rewrite the PyObjC bridge entirely and aim it *only* at solving
> the Foundation and below problem (while removing cruft from almost 8
> years ago, at this point)
>

I caught up with reading some threads on python-dev about plans to
fix the class-instance/builtin-object split in Python, and was
reading up on the metaclass hack and Jim Fultons extension classes.

[ See: <http://www.python.org/doc/essays/metaclasses/>  or
  look in the Demo subdirectory of your python source distribution. ]

The class/object split is one of the things that needs to be fixed
in a rewrite: Objective-C classes are Python objects but not
Python classes, so you can't extend an objective-C class directly.

The Python BOOST C++ library uses the metaclass hack to make C++
classes extensible in Python.


-- Steve Majewski


[ PS. I *am* going to answer some of Deidre's other questions --
  I've been out of the office a bit lately -- trying to get my
  other car to pass inspection, and selling off a big chunk of
  of my library -- but in between that I've been trying to see
  if I could find a way around some of the problems. ]