guide to introspecting python?

[Mark Harrison]

What's a good document to read in order to understand some
of python's introspective functions?

I'm trying to recurse through a module and print information
about its contents. dir() does something similar to what
I have in mind, but it's documented to be more for human
interaction than definitive programmatic correctness,
so I'd like to call or look at whatever it's using.

This bit of code never finishes because dir(something)
and dir(something.__call__) return the same thing.

def rdir(item, v=""):
print "%s%s"%(v,item)
for i in dir(item):
rdir(i, v+" ")

import os
rdir(os)
Any help/pointers appreciated!

Thanks,
Mark

PS, you will probably recognize this as my attempt to
generate programatically the module/function/parameter
index I previously asked about...

--
Mark Harrison
Pixar Animation Studios

[Peter Hansen]

Mark Harrison wrote:

What's a good document to read in order to understand some
of python's introspective functions? .... PS, you will probably recognize this as my attempt to
generate programatically the module/function/parameter
index I previously asked about...

Isn't the "inspect" standard module exactly what you need?

[Skip Montanaro]

Mark> def rdir(item, v=""):
Mark> print "%s%s"%(v,item)
Mark> for i in dir(item):
Mark> rdir(i, v+" ")

Mark> import os
Mark> rdir(os)

Problem is, dir() is already recursive:

class A: ... def a(self): pass
... class B: ... def b(self): pass
... class C(A,B): pass ... c = C()
dir(c) ['__doc__', '__module__', 'a', 'b'] dir(C)

['__doc__', '__module__', 'a', 'b']

As others have suggested, the inspect module is probably a good place to
start.

Skip

[Mark Harrison]

Peter Hansen <pe***@engcorp.com> wrote:

Isn't the "inspect" standard module exactly what you need?

Yes it is... thanks!

[Chris Irish]

I saw that you work for pixar. Do they use python alot? Is it mostly
for making tools for the artists or something else? And one last
question does pixar use their own software for rendering or more
commercial stuff like Maya/3d Studio Max. Sorry for being nosey.