Metaclass programming in Python (IBM developerWorks) [LWN.net]

David Mertz, and Michele Simionato explain metaclass programming concepts in Python. "Most readers are already familiar with the concepts of object-oriented programming: inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism. But the creation of objects of a given class, with certain parents, is usually thought of as a "just so" operation. It turns out that a number of new programming constructs become either easier, or possible at all, when you can customize the process of object creation. Metaclasses enable certain types of "aspect-oriented programming," for example, you can enhance classes with features like tracing capabilities, object persistence, exception logging, and more."

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