Recursive Repr

[rhettinger]

BPO	9840
Nosy	@rhettinger, @merwok
Files	recursive_repr.patch: Patch with test and docs

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2010-09-13.21:37:17.229>
created_at = <Date 2010-09-12.22:13:18.603>
labels = ['type-feature']
title = 'Recursive Repr'
updated_at = <Date 2011-04-05.16:21:30.780>
user = 'https://github.com/rhettinger'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2011-04-05.16:21:30.780>
actor = 'eric.araujo'
assignee = 'none'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2010-09-13.21:37:17.229>
closer = 'rhettinger'
components = []
creation = <Date 2010-09-12.22:13:18.603>
creator = 'rhettinger'
dependencies = []
files = ['18862']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 9840
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['116239', '116257', '116353', '133047']
nosy_count = 2.0
nosy_names = ['rhettinger', 'eric.araujo']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue9840'
versions = ['Python 3.2']

[rhettinger]

Add a recursive_repr() decorator to provide a solution to the problem of creating a container __repr__ method that doesn't fail for recursive calls.

[merwok]

Good idea. I wonder if the genericity (being able to specify the placeholder) is needed; the ellipsis is used by built-in containers (not documented AFAICT, see bpo-9842) and seems a good choice for most (all?) of the cases. What bothers me is that this simple, common case can’t just use @recursive_repr (without parens) which seems to me more natural.

One markup glitch: :meth:`repr__` lacks two underscores.

(Unimportant side question: Since collections defines __all__, why are imported names renamed with a trailing underscore?)

[rhettinger]

Committed in r84792.

[merwok]

FTR, the answer to my interrogation in my previous message is contained in Raymond’s PyCon talk about API design: http://pycon.blip.tv/file/4883290/ :)