Metamorphism

Implements metamorphism for Python classes. Metamorphic classes are similar to polymorphic classes except that the sub-class is applied to an already existing object.

Example usage

from metamorph import morph, Metamorphic

class MetamorphBase(Metamorphic) :
    def greet(self) :
        return "Hello, World!"

class MetamorphChild(MetamorphBase) :
    def greet(self) :
        return "Hello, Earth!"

greeter = MetamorphBase()
print(greeter.greet()) # prints Hello, World!
morph(greeter, MetamorphChild)
print(greeter.greet()) # prints Hello, Earth!

Constraints

By default the module enforces a number of constraints on metamorph children. It throws exception when the class is created. This is designed to prevent unexpected behavior during runtime. These can be partially or wholly ignored using CustomMetamorphc. (See below)

To avoid unpredictable side effects by default child classes are only allowed to change the behavior of an object. They cannot maintain their own state. Thus they can only implement methods that already exist in the metamorphic class and method signatures must match. Implementing __init__ or __new__ or any attributes also throws an exception. In addition child classes can only inherit directly from the base class and multiple inheritance is forbidden. The base class is still allowed to use multiple inheritance.

Configuration

The module can be configured by using the metaclass CustomMetamorphic followed by keyword/option pairs. For example

class UnsafeMetamorphic(Metamorphism, metaclass=CustomMetamorphism, strict=False) :
    pass

class UnsafeMetamorph(UnsafeMetamorphic) :
    def can_define_anything(self) :
        pass

If you want to use the same settings in several metamorphic classes then create a class which derives from the MetamorphismBase class. For Example

class UnsafeMetamophism(MetamorphismBase, metaclass=CustomMetamorphism, strict=False) :
    pass

class UnsafeMetamorphic(UnsafeMetamophism) :
    pass

class AnotherMetamorphic(UnsafeMetamophism) :
    pass

The following options are available

Option	Default	Notes
strict	True	Setting this to False bypasses all checks on the sanity of the code. Note: Due to the potential for unexpected side effects any bugs reported from using this option may not addressed.
allow_mixed_typing	False	Allows child metamorph to use type hinting if not applied by the base. However changing or removing the hint still raises an error.
allow_init	False	Allows __init__ or __new__ to be defined in the child classes
allow_metamorph_subclassing	False	Allow classes to inherit from metamorphs.
private_members	False	Normally members starting with __ are shared between the base and its children. Setting this option to true makes these variables only accessible from the base class.

API

• Metamorphic - The base class for metamorphic classes.
• metamorphism_config(strict, allow_mixed_types, allow_init, private_members) - Used to configure the module.
• morph(obj, morphclass) - Morphs obj to the given morphclass.
• ismetamorphic(obj_or_cls) - Returns if class or object are metamorphic.
• ismetamorphicbase(obj_or_cls) - Returns if class or object is a metamorphic base class.
• ismetamorphicchild(obj_or_cls) - Returns if class or object is a metamorphic child class.
• ismetamorphicconfig(obj_or_cls) - Returns if class or object is use to configure metamorphism
• MetamorphismError - Raised if there is a problem with the definition of the classes.
• MetamorphismException - Raised if morph is used incorrectly.
• MetamorphicType - The metaclass for metamorphic classes. You should not need to use it directly. Inherit from the Metamorphic class instead.
• CustomMetamorphic - Allow customisation of metamorphism constraints.
• MetamorphismBase - The base class used for all metamorphism.