[SciPy-dev] a suggest patch for the traits package

[Trent Mick]

This is directed mainly at David Morrill. Hi David, we met at PyCon if you'll
remember.

I have started using your Traits package in some scripts of mine
(I quite like it), and have a few of questions/suggested changes:

1. TraitFunction optionally allows for an "info" attribute on the
   validation function to specify a more specific description than "a
   legal value". How about using the function's docstring (if it exists)
   for "info":

--- traits.py.orig  Thu Apr 03 14:17:08 2003
+++ traits.py   Thu Apr 03 14:14:03 2003
@@ -904,8 +904,10 @@
    def info ( self ):
        try:
           return self.aFunc.info
        except:
+          if self.aFunc.__doc__:
+             return self.aFunc.__doc__
           return 'a legal value'
 
 #--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #  'TraitEnum' class:
End of Patch.

   This patch still allows an "info" attribute to override the
   docstring if you think that that is valueable to maintain. If not, if
   wouldn't break any of my code to drop the 'aFunc.info' option in
   favor of using the docstring. :)


2. Trait.do_list() does not currently translate a MethodType object
   (i.e. a class method) to a TraitFunction. I think it should:

--- traits.py.orig  Thu Apr 03 14:17:08 2003
+++ traits.py   Thu Apr 03 14:49:47 2003
@@ -341,9 +341,10 @@
               elif typeItem == DictType:
                  map.update( item )
               elif typeItem == ClassType:
                  other.append( TraitInstance( item ) )
-              elif typeItem == FunctionType:
+              elif (typeItem == FunctionType or
+                    typeItem == MethodType):
                  other.append( TraitFunction( item ) )
               elif (isinstance( item, TraitHandler )  or
                     isinstance( item, TraitDelegate ) or
                     isinstance( item, Trait )):
End of Patch.


   What do you think? These two patches allow one to do something like
   the following:

        from traits import *

        class CheechAndChong(HasTraits):
            __traits__ = {"badges": None}
            def __init__(self):
                self.__traits__["badges"] = (self.validate_badges,)
            def validate_badges(self, object, name, value):
                "nuthin'"
                if not value:
                    return value
                raise ValueError("we don't need no stinkin' badges")
            
        c = CheechAndChong()
        c.badges = 2

    raises this error string:

        traits.traits.TraitError: The 'badges' trait of a CheechAndChong instance must be nuthin', but a value of 2 was specified.


3. The mixed tab spacing in the .py files makes it very difficult to
   edit these files. Would you consider standardizing on 4 space
   indentations? If so I would be happy to do a lot of the leg work to
   reindent. (Actually, I think reindent.py in the Python source tree
   will do most of that leg work automatically.)


Cheers,
Trent

-- 
Trent Mick
TrentM at ActiveState.com