InterfaceInterface

Interface Interfaces

Interface objects

Interface objects describe how an object works. The provide a name and documentation for an interface, and a list of Attribute and Method objects that define the interface.

All Interface objects define the following methods:

getName

Returns the name of the object.

getDoc

Returns the documentation for the object.

setTaggedValue(tag, value)

Associates value to the object with the tag tag.

getTaggedValue(tag)

Returns the value associated with key.

getTaggedValueTags()

Returns a list of all tags associated with this object.

Interface object methods

getBases

Returns a sequence of base interfaces this interface extends.

extends(other)

Does this interface extend the other interface? Returns true or false.

isImplementedBy(object)

Does object implement this interface? Returns true or false.

isImplementedByInstancesOf(klass)

Does the class klass implement this interface? Returns true or false.

names()

Returns a list of names of Attributes and Methods that define this interface.

JimFulton? 2000-12-9

Note that methods are attributes, so this should say: "Returns a list of names of Attributes (including Methods) that define this interface"

namesAndDescriptions()

Returns a mapping from name to description objects. Description objects are of type Attribute or Method. namesAndDescriptions().keys() is equivalent to names().

getDescriptionFor(name, default=None)

Returns the description object for name if it exists, otherwise returns default.

deferred()

Returns a deferred class that implements the interface. This class can then be subclasses and the individual attributes and methods overridden with concrete implementations. Instances of this class that try to call deferred methods that haven't been overridden will raise an Interface.BrokenImplementation exception.

Method objects

Method objects describe interesting meta data about Interface methods.

Method object methods

getSignatureInfo()

returns a mapping from signature info keys to their values. Current signature info keys are:

positional

A sequence of argument names in proper positional order.

JimFulton? 2000-12-9

Hm. This doesn't look quite right. I suggest that instead of positiona, required, and optional, we have instead a sequence of parameter objects, where parameter objects have methods (or attributes) for getting:

name

the parameter type

type

An interface, interface tuple, python type, python class, or None

default

Default value.

optional

a flag indicating if it is optional

tagged values.

Maybe you should have a flag indicating whether a parameter is a returned or input parameter (ala UML) or have separate returned-value meta-data.

required

A sequence of argument names that are required.

optional

A mapping from optional argument names to their default values.

varargs

A boolean value, true if the method can accept arbitrary arguments, false otherwise.

kwargs

A boolean value, true if the method can accept arbitrary keyword arguments, false otherwise.

getSignatureRepr()

Returns a human readable string representation of the methods signature, for example: (one, two="foo", **kws)

JimFulton? 2000-12-9

Reprs atr not for humans. I suggest getSignatureString instead.