suggestion: adding weakattr to stdlib

[gangesmaster]

three-liner:
reposted from python-dev for more feedback. it suggests to add
the weakattr class to the standard weakref.py module.
comments are welcome.

[ http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.python.devel/81875 ]

From: tomer filiba <tomerfiliba <atgmail.com>
Subject: weakattr
Newsgroups: gmane.comp.python.devel
Date: 2006-07-01 13:49:46 GMT (2 days, 3 hours and 12 minutes ago)

weakattr (weak attributes) are attributes that are weakly referenced
by their containing object. they are very useful for cyclic references
--
an object that holds a reference to itself.

when a cyclic reference is found by the GC, the memory may be
freed, but __del__ is not called, because it's impossible to tell which
__del__ to call first. this is an awkward asymmetry with no clean
solution: most such objects provide a "close" or "dispose" method
that must be called explicitly.

weakattrs to solve this problem, by providing a "magical" attribute
that "disappears" when the attribute is no longer strongly-referenced.

you can find the code, as well as some examples, on this link
http://sebulba.wikispaces.com/recipe+weakattr

since the stdlib already comes with weakref.py, which provides
higher level concepts over the builtin _weakref module, i'd like to
make weakattr a part of it.

it's only ~20 lines of code, and imho saves the trouble of explicitly
releasing the resource of un__del__able objects.

i think it's useful. here's a snippet:

>>from weakref import weakattr

class blah(object):

.... yada = weakref()
....

>>o1 = blah()
o2 = blah()
o1.yada = o2
o2.yada = o1

o1.yada is a *weakref* to o2, so that when o2 is no longer
strongly-referenced...

>>del o2

o1.yada "magically" disappears as well.

>>o1.yada

.... AttributeError(...)

since the programmer explicitly defined "yada" as a weakatt, he/she
knows it might "disappear". it might look awkward at first, but that's
exactly the *desired* behavior (otherwise we'd just use the regular
strong attributes).

another thing to note is that weakattrs are likely to be gone only
when the object's __del__ is already invoked, so the only code that
needs to take such precautions is __del__ (which already has some
constraints)

for example:

>>class blah(object):

.... me = weakattr()
....
.... def __init__(self):
.... self.me = self
....
.... def something(self):
.... # we can rest assure me exists at this stage
.... print self.me
....
.... def __del__(self):
.... # by the time __del__ is called, "me" is removed
.... print "me exists?", hasattr(self, "me")
....

>>b = blah()
b.me

<__main__.blah object at 0x00C0EC10>

>>b.something()

<__main__.blah object at 0x00C0EC10>

>>del b
import gc
gc.collect()

me exists? False
0

>>>

-tomer