Modifying builtin type behaviour

[Jean-S?bastien Bolduc]

I'm afraid this is a silly question, to which I know the answer
already. But let me ask anyway...

In Python, is there a way to modify a builtin type's methods? for
instance, modifying int.__add__ to behave as multiplication, I would
obtain 2+5 == 10. I emphasize that I don't want to modify the Python
source, but change the types behaviour _from within Python_.

Help would be appreciated!

 

[Michele Simionato]

I'm afraid this is a silly question, to which I know the answer
already. But let me ask anyway...

In Python, is there a way to modify a builtin type's methods? for
instance, modifying int.__add__ to behave as multiplication, I would
obtain 2+5 == 10. I emphasize that I don't want to modify the Python
source, but change the types behaviour _from within Python_.

Help would be appreciated!

There is no way of doing what you asked in Python, since Guido thinks
it is a Bad Idea (TM). He is probably right; on the other hand, Matz,
the creator of Ruby, thinks it is a good idea, so you may want to check
Ruby for this kind of games. In Python you need to subclass int to
modify its methods, which is probably not what you want.

Michele Simionato

 

[Gerrit]

I'm afraid this is a silly question, to which I know the answer
already. But let me ask anyway...

In Python, is there a way to modify a builtin type's methods? for
instance, modifying int.__add__ to behave as multiplication, I would
obtain 2+5 == 10. I emphasize that I don't want to modify the Python
source, but change the types behaviour _from within Python_.
Why?

Help would be appreciated!

I'm almost sure it isn't possible...

Gerrit.

 

[Andrew Bennetts]

Why?

Yes, why? There's a decent chance you can do what you want without
modifying builtin types.

I'm almost sure it isn't possible...

Anything is possible, given sufficient quantities of evil:

http://www.intarweb.us:8080/evil/intrinsics.c
http://www.intarweb.us:8080/evil/intrinsics_example.py
http://www.intarweb.us:8080/PyCon/intrinsics-lightning-0.xhtml

-Andrew.