ABC question: what is the purpose of the register() method?

[Kay Schluehr]

I was reading PEP 3119 (http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3119/ ) and
have done some experiments using Python 3.0a5. Now I'm somewhat
puzzled about the purpose of the ABCMeta.register() method.

One can use the register() method to register any class as a virtual
subclass of any ABC. For example one can register `int` on `Iterable`
and therefore it is a subclass which is confirmed in the issubclass
check. What is that good for?

This registration might even conflict with the implementation of
__subclasscheck__. So one might expect that register(C) leads to an
acceptance of a class as a subclass but this isnt't true if
__subclasscheck__(C) rejects it. Why isn't __subclasscheck__ not
sufficient?

Example:
--------------

class Interface(metaclass = ABCMeta):
@classmethod
def __subclasscheck__(cls, C):
return cls.__abstractmethods__.issubset(C.__dict__) # some
contract...

class IAppendable(Interface):
@abstractmethod
def append(self, item): pass

False

True

 

[Benjamin]

I was reading PEP 3119 (http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3119/) and
have done some experiments using Python 3.0a5. Now I'm somewhat
puzzled about the purpose of the ABCMeta.register() method.

One can use the register() method to register any class as a virtual
subclass of any ABC. For example one can register `int` on `Iterable`
and therefore it is a subclass which is confirmed in the issubclass
check. What is that good for?

It's mostly good for types created in C, where it's hard to inherit a
class. For example, builtin types register them selves under some ABCs
in collections.