Commit d1d59977 authored by Fred Drake's avatar Fred Drake

Note that the UserString/MutableString classes are far less efficient

than the built-in string types (suggested by Moshe Zadka
<moshez@math.huji.ac.il>).

Clarified what "can be converted to a string" means.

Fixed a few markup nits.
parent f6ab4bcb
......@@ -92,23 +92,26 @@ methods which need to be provided in that case.
\moduleauthor{Peter Funk}{pf@artcom-gmbh.de}
\sectionauthor{Peter Funk}{pf@artcom-gmbh.de}
This module defines a class that acts as a wrapper around
string objects. It is a useful base class for
your own string-like classes, which can inherit from
them and override existing methods or add new ones. In this way one
can add new behaviors to strings.
This module defines a class that acts as a wrapper around string
objects. It is a useful base class for your own string-like classes,
which can inherit from them and override existing methods or add new
ones. In this way one can add new behaviors to strings.
The \module{UserString} module defines the \class{UserString} class:
It should be noted that these classes are highly inefficient compared
to real string or Unicode objects; this is especially the case for
\class{MutableString}.
The \module{UserString} module defines the following classes:
\begin{classdesc}{UserString}{\optional{sequence}}
Return a class instance that simulates a string or a Unicode string object.
The instance's content is kept in a regular string or Unicode string
object, which is accessible via the
\member{data} attribute of \class{UserString} instances. The instance's
contents are initially set to a copy of \var{sequence}.
\var{sequence} can be either a regular Python string or Unicode string,
an instance of \class{UserString} (or a subclass) or an arbitrary sequence
which can be converted into a string.
Return a class instance that simulates a string or a Unicode string
object. The instance's content is kept in a regular string or Unicode
string object, which is accessible via the \member{data} attribute of
\class{UserString} instances. The instance's contents are initially
set to a copy of \var{sequence}. \var{sequence} can be either a
regular Python string or Unicode string, an instance of
\class{UserString} (or a subclass) or an arbitrary sequence which can
be converted into a string using the built-in \function{str()} function.
\end{classdesc}
\begin{classdesc}{MutableString}{\optional{sequence}}
......@@ -117,14 +120,15 @@ strings to be \emph{mutable}. Mutable strings can't be used as
dictionary keys, because dictionaries require \emph{immutable} objects as
keys. The main intention of this class is to serve as an educational
example for inheritance and necessity to remove (override) the
\function{__hash__} method in order to trap attempts to use a
\method{__hash__()} method in order to trap attempts to use a
mutable object as dictionary key, which would be otherwise very
error prone and hard to track down.
\end{classdesc}
In addition to supporting the methods and operations of string or
Unicode objects (see section \ref{typesseq}), \class{UserString} instances
provide the following attribute:
In addition to supporting the methods and operations of string and
Unicode objects (see section \ref{string-methods}, ``String
Methods''), \class{UserString} instances provide the following
attribute:
\begin{memberdesc}{data}
A real Python string or Unicode object used to store the content of the
......
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