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Diffstat (limited to 'Doc/lib/libuserdict.tex')
| -rw-r--r-- | Doc/lib/libuserdict.tex | 24 |
1 files changed, 11 insertions, 13 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/lib/libuserdict.tex b/Doc/lib/libuserdict.tex index 89d7428..ef643cc 100644 --- a/Doc/lib/libuserdict.tex +++ b/Doc/lib/libuserdict.tex @@ -4,22 +4,20 @@ \declaremodule{standard}{UserDict} \modulesynopsis{Class wrapper for dictionary objects.} -\note{This module is available for backward compatibility only. If -you are writing code that does not need to work with versions of -Python earlier than Python 2.2, please consider subclassing directly -from the built-in \class{dict} type.} -This module defines a class that acts as a wrapper around -dictionary objects. It is a useful base class for -your own dictionary-like classes, which can inherit from -them and override existing methods or add new ones. In this way one -can add new behaviors to dictionaries. - -The module also defines a mixin defining all dictionary methods for -classes that already have a minimum mapping interface. This greatly -simplifies writing classes that need to be substitutable for +The module defines a mixin, \class{DictMixin}, defining all dictionary +methods for classes that already have a minimum mapping interface. This +greatly simplifies writing classes that need to be substitutable for dictionaries (such as the shelve module). +This also module defines a class, \class{UserDict}, that acts as a wrapper +around dictionary objects. The need for this class has been largely +supplanted by the ability to subclass directly from \class{dict} (a feature +that became available starting with Python version 2.2). Prior to the +introduction of \class{dict}, the \class{UserDict} class was used to +create dictionary-like sub-classes that obtained new behaviors by overriding +existing methods or adding new ones. + The \module{UserDict} module defines the \class{UserDict} class and \class{DictMixin}: |