Add .copy() to all TL objects

[penn5]

It should accept only kwargs, each one overriding that property in the newly created object.

[penn5]

This wouldn't be backwards incompatible

[Lonami]

(Split off #1169 (comment)). I'm still not sold on this idea. Also, we would need a better name, since copy can easily be used as an identifier in the api.tl. I'm even thinking about removing all but the special methods in the TLObject and provide the extra functionality through some utils.

namedtuple side-steps this issue by requiring all fields to not start with an underscore, so it can provide namedtuple._replace -- but I'm not fully on board with ignoring the "private names start with underscore" convention just to provide a "useful" _replace method:

>>> A = namedtuple('A', '_replace')

ValueError: Field names cannot start with an underscore: '_replace'

[penn5]

I would be in favour of appending an underscore to the TL bit when it has a name collision.

[Lonami]

If anything, custom methods would always be end with underscore, so that future versions do not need to be a breaking change.

[penn5]

yeah that's reasonable

[penn5]

This also leads the way to making TL objects immutable and hashable

[Lonami]

I'm looking at ways to make objects immutable, and it seems there's no "clean" way to do so? Ways to make a class immutable in Python (and linked How to make an immutable object in Python?). I wonder if it's really worth the effort attempting to forbid immutability.

[penn5]

Dataclasses...

…

On Tue, 4 Jan 2022, 00:28 Lonami, ***@***.***> wrote: I'm looking at ways to make objects immutable, and it seems there's no "clean" way to do so? Ways to make a class immutable in Python <https://stackoverflow.com/q/4996815/> (and linked How to make an immutable object in Python? <https://stackoverflow.com/q/4828080/>). I wonder if it's really worth the effort attempting to forbid immutability. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3158 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABKXNQR6FVPZQ66H6J3OP6DUUI5LBANCNFSM5D37QTOA> . Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675> or Android <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&referrer=utm_campaign%3Dnotification-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dgithub>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Lonami]

This is unlikely to happen in the near future so I will be closing the issue. We can reopen it if there's still interest once the time is right.