Question

I’d like to serialize Python objects to and from the plist format (this can be done with plistlib). My idea was to write a class PlistObject which wraps other objects:

def __init__(self, anObject):
     self.theObject = anObject

and provides a “write” method:

def write(self, pathOrFile):
    plistlib.writeToPlist(self.theObject.__dict__, pathOrFile)

Now it would be nice if the PlistObject behaved just like wrapped object itself, meaning that all attributes and methods are somehow “forwarded” to the wrapped object. I realize that the methods __getattr__ and __setattr__ can be used for complex attribute operations:

    def __getattr__(self, name):
         return self.theObject.__getattr__(name)

But then of course I run into the problem that the constructor now produces an infinite recursion, since also self.theObject = anObject tries to access the wrapped object.

How can I avoid this? If the whole idea seems like a bad one, tell me too.

Answer 1

But then of course I run into the problem that the constructor now produces an infinite recursion, since also self.theObject = anObject tries to access the wrapped object.

That’s why the manual suggests that you do this for all “real” attribute accesses.

theobj = object.__getattribute__(self, "theObject")