is it possible to dividing up a class in multiple files?

[Martin Höfling]

Hi there,

is it possible to put the methods of a class in different files? I just
want to order them and try to keep the files small.

Regards
Martin

[Diez B. Roggisch]

Martin Höfling wrote:

is it possible to put the methods of a class in different files? I just
want to order them and try to keep the files small.

No, its not possible. What you can do is to create several classes and one
that inherits from all of them.

Better yet is to not write huge classes and getting rid of strange
conventions or views that make the problem appear as such. To explain that:
I've never felt the need to spread a class over several files - au
contraire, I despise Java for forcing me to only have one top level class
per file.

Diez

[Michiel Sikma]

Hi Martin,

I don't think that's possible, since a file is executed when it is
imported. If you load a file which contains a "partial" class, you
will get an error because the indentation is incorrect, or the
methods will be loaded in the wrong namespace.

Regards,
Michiel

Op 7-aug-2006, om 15:41 heeft Martin Höfling het volgende geschreven:

Hi there,

is it possible to put the methods of a class in different files? I
just
want to order them and try to keep the files small.

Regards
Martin
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list

[Chris Johnson]

Martin Höfling wrote:

Hi there,

is it possible to put the methods of a class in different files? I just
want to order them and try to keep the files small.

Regards
Martin

I ran across pyp the other day. It may be what you're wanting.

http://www.freenet.org.nz/python/pyp/

[bearophileHUGS]

Martin Höfling:

is it possible to put the methods of a class in different files? I just
want to order them and try to keep the files small.

Well, you can create one or more modules filled with nude methods, and
you can define a class inside another module, and then add the methods
to this last class using a little helper function.

Bye,
bearophile

[Ziga Seilnacht]

Martin Höfling wrote:

Hi there,

is it possible to put the methods of a class in different files? I just
want to order them and try to keep the files small.

Regards
Martin

You could use something like this:

"""
Example usage:

>>class Person(object):

.... def __init__(self, first, last):
.... self.first = first
.... self.last = last
....

>>john = Person('John', 'Smith')
jane = Person('Jane', 'Smith')
class Person(extend(P erson)):

.... def fullname(self):
.... return self.first + ' ' + self.last
....

>>john.fullname ()

'John Smith'

>>jane.fullname ()

'Jane Smith'
"""

def extend(cls):
extender = object.__new__( Extender)
extender.class_ to_extend = cls
return extender
class Extender(object ):

def __new__(cls, name, bases, dict):
# check that there is only one base
base, = bases
extended = base.class_to_e xtend
# names have to be equal otherwise name mangling wouldn't work
if name != extended.__name __:
msg = "class names are not identical: expected %r, got %r"
raise ValueError(msg % (extended.__nam e__, name))
# module is added automatically
module = dict.pop('__mod ule__', None)
if module is not None:
modules = getattr(extende d, '__modules__', None)
if modules is None:
modules = extended.__modu les__ = [extended.__modu le__]
modules.append( module)
# replace the docstring only if it is not None
doc = dict.pop('__doc __', None)
if doc is not None:
setattr(extende d, '__doc__', doc)
# now patch the original class with all the new attributes
for attrname, value in dict.items():
setattr(extende d, attrname, value)
return extended
Ziga

[Bruno Desthuilliers]

Martin Höfling wrote:

Hi there,

is it possible to put the methods of a class in different files? I just
want to order them and try to keep the files small.

Technically, yes - but in a somewhat hackish way.

But you *really* should not have such a need at first. Smells like a
design (or coding) problem to me - FWIW, very few of my source files are

1 KLOC, and they usually contains many classes, functions and other

definitions.

[Ant]

Martin Höfling wrote:

Hi there,

is it possible to put the methods of a class in different files? I just
want to order them and try to keep the files small.

The editor leo (http://webpages.charter.net/edreamleo/front.html) gives
you a way of handling large files in this way without actually having
to split the class between files. A bit like a more powerful form of
folding and narrowing text that some other editors have.

But like others have noted, it is probably an indication that the class
could use a bit of refactoring...

[Martin Höfling]

Thanks for your suggestions, precompiling is not an option, cause I
can't introduce extra dependencies from a precompiler.

Better yet is to not write huge classes and getting rid of strange
conventions or views that make the problem appear as such. To explain that:
I've never felt the need to spread a class over several files - au
contraire, I despise Java for forcing me to only have one top level class
per file.

You're probably right. I'll think about it if it's possible to move some
stuff out of the class.

Thanks
Martin

[John McMonagle]

On Mon, 2006-08-07 at 15:41 +0200, Martin Höfling wrote:

Hi there,

is it possible to put the methods of a class in different files? I just
want to order them and try to keep the files small.

Here's how I do it:

Firstly, I create a file called imports.py which contains all my import
statements. These are obviously indented at the zero position.

I then create a classname.py file. This just has the class statement
(eg: class Foo:)
..

I then create a separate file for each function in the class. Eg:
init.py, function1.py, etc). These must be indented by one indent
position.

I then create a main.py file. This contains statements to be executed
after all the statements in the class.

I create a shell script which concatenates the files in the correct
order

eg:

cat imports.py \
classname.py \
init.py \
function1.py \
....
....
...
main.py module.py

I use the concatenated file, module.py, as the program to run or import.

I find it easier to maintain code in this way - if I need to make a
change to a particular function, I just edit the file in which the
function is defined and re-run the shell script to make the program. If
I need to add a new function to the class I just need to create a new
file and add its entry to the shell script in the correct place and
re-run the shell script.

Of course you are not limited to a single function per file, but that is
what works best for me.

Regards,

John

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