* Updating Parameters class: now based on dict.

* Can add two Parameters together, which means joining the two or more dicts,
  much like what function dict_join does.

sugar.py

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/ipython -pylab
 #
-# $Id: sugar.py,v 1.5 2010-08-12 19:35:55 wirawan Exp $
+# $Id: sugar.py,v 1.6 2010-09-10 21:24:56 wirawan Exp $
 #
 # Created: 20100121
 # Wirawan Purwanto
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 #
 #
 import sys
+import weakref
 
 def ifelse(cond, trueval, *args):
   """An alternative to python's own ternary operator, but with multiple
@@ -109,20 +110,24 @@ class ranges_type:
 ranges = ranges_type()
 
 
-class Parameters(object):
+class Parameters(dict):
   """A standardized way to define and/or pass parameters (with possible
   default values) among routines.
   This provides a very flexible lookup scheme for a parameter with a given name.
-  It scans through the namescopes (dicts) in a deterministic order, returning
+  It scans through the namescopes (dicts) in a deterministic and sequential
-  the first one found.
+  order, returning the first one found.
   This, hopefully, gets rid of kitchen-sink parameter passing, at least from
   programmer's point of view.
 
-  WARNING: This object is derived object instead of python dict, so as to avoid
+  WARNING: This object is derived from python dict with ALL method names removed,
-  messing with standard dict names.
+  so as to avoid collosion of these names with user-defined parameters with the
+  same name.
   Names reserved by this class begin and end with an underscore.
   Names reserved by python begin and end with two underscores.
   So, avoid specifying parameters with both leading and trailing underscores.
+  WARNING: Be careful modifying this class; endless recursive calls are
+  possible.
+
 
   Some uses:
 
@@ -135,21 +140,118 @@ class Parameters(object):
       for step in prm.steps:
          ...
 
-  Reserved members:
+  Parameters can also be updated in this way:
-  * _no_null_ = (True/False, default False) look for non-null values in all
+
-    the parameter lists until one is found.
+    a = Parameters(...)
+    updates = {'nblk': 7, 'nbasis': 32}
+    a += updates
+
+  or, to call a function with a combination of parameters:
+
+  Reserved private members of the Parameters object:
+  * _no_null_ = (True/False, default False) look for non-null (non-"None") values
+    in all the parameter lists until one is found.
   * _list_ = (list) the list of parameter dicts to search from.
-  * _prm_ = (dict) the most overriding list of parameters.
+  * _kwparam_ = (string, default "_opts_") the default name of the function argument
+    that will hold excess named arguments.
+    Used in _create_() function below.
+    If this is set to None, we will not use this feature.
+  * _userparam_ = (string, default "_p") the default name of the function argument
+    that will contain Parameters-like object given by the user.
+    Used in _create_() function below.
+    If this is set to None, we will not use this feature.
+
+  The most overriding list of parameters, as provided via excess key=value
+  arguments in creating this Parameters object, are stored in "self".
   """
+
+  class _self_weakref_:
+    """A minimal proxy object, just enough to get a weakref to the 'self' object
+    below to be accesible via a few dict-like lookup mechanisms.
+    Also needed to avoid recursive `in' and [] get operators below."""
+    def __init__(self, obj):
+      self.ref = weakref.ref(obj)
+    def __contains__(self, key):
+      return dict.__contains__(self.ref(), key)
+    def __getitem__(self, key):
+      return dict.__getitem__(self.ref(), key)
+
   def __init__(self, *_override_dicts_, **_opts_):
     """
-    Again, keyword arguments passed here will become the most overriding options.
+    Creates a new Parameters() object.
+    The unnamed arguments are taken to be dict-like objects from which we will
+    search for parameters.
+    We silently ignore `None' values which are passed in this way.
+    Parameters will be searched in left-to-right order of these dict-like
+    objects.
+    Then the keyword-style arguments passed on this constructor will become
+    the most overriding options.
+
+    The dict-like objects must contain the following functionalities:
+    * for key in obj:
+        ...
+      (in other words, the __iter__() method).
+    * key in obj
+    * obj[key]
+    That's it!
+
+    Example:
+      defaults = { 'walltime': '6:00:00', 'nwlk': 100 }
+      # ...
+      p = Parameters(defaults, walltime='7:00:00', nblk=300)
+
+    Then when we want to use it:
+      >> p.nwlk
+      100
+      >> p.walltime
+      '7:00:00'
+      >> p.nblk
+      300
+
+    Options:
+    * _no_null_ = if True, look for the first non-None value.
+    * _flatten_ = will flatten the key-value pairs.
+      Note that this may make the Parameters object unnecessarily large in memory.
+      Additionally, this means that the updates in the contents of the dicts
+      passed as the _override_dicts_ can no longer be reflected in this object
+      because of the shallow copying involved here.
+    * _kwparam_
+    * _userparam_
+    At present, the `flatten' attribute will not be propagated to the child
+    Parameters objects created by this parent object.
     """
-    prm = _opts_
+
-    self.__dict__["_no_null_"] = ifelse(_opts_.get("_no_null_"), True, False)
+    # Remove standard dict procedure names not beginning with "_":
-    self.__dict__["_prm_"] = prm
+    for badkw in self.__dict__:
-    paramlist = (prm,) + _override_dicts_ #+ tuple(deflist))
+      if not badkw.startswith("_"):
+        del self.__dict__[badkw]
+    # Store the user-defined overrides in its own container:
+    dict.clear(self)
+    dict.update(self, _opts_)
+    if _opts_.get('_flatten_', False):
+      for p in paramlist:
+        dict.update(self, p)
+    else:
+      # WARNING: Using weakref proxy is important:
+      # - to allow clean deletion of Parameters() objects when not needed
+      # - to avoid recursive 'in' and 'get[]' operators.
+      paramlist = (Parameters._self_weakref_(self),) + _override_dicts_ #+ tuple(deflist))
+      #paramlist = (self,) + _override_dicts_ #+ tuple(deflist))
       self.__dict__["_list_"] = [ p for p in paramlist if p != None ]
+    self.__dict__["_kwparam_"] = _opts_.get("_kwparam_", "_opts_")
+    self.__dict__["_userparam_"] = _opts_.get("_userparam_", "_p")
+    self.__dict__["_no_null_"] = ifelse(_opts_.get("_no_null_"), True, False)
+    # Finally, filter out reserved keywords from the dict:
+    for badkw in ("_kwparam_", "_userparam_", "_no_null_", "_flatten_"):
+      #if badkw in self: del self[badkw] -- recursive!!!
+      if dict.__contains__(self,badkw): del self[badkw]
+  def _copy_(self):
+    """Returns a copy of the Parameters() object."""
+    return Parameters(_no_null_=self._no_null_,
+                      _kwparam_=self._kwparam_,
+                      _userparam_=self._userparam_,
+                      *self._list_[1:],
+                      **self)
   def __getattr__(self, key):
     """Allows options to be accessed in attribute-like manner, like:
         opt.niter = 3
@@ -162,12 +264,12 @@ class Parameters(object):
     else:
       for ov in self._list_:
         if key in ov: return ov[key]
-    # Otherwise:
+    # Otherwise: -- but most likely this will return attribute error:
-    return object.__getattribute__(self, key)
+    return dict.__getattribute__(self, key)
   def __setattr__(self, key, value):
     """This method always sets the value on the object's dictionary.
     Values set will override any values set in the input parameter lists."""
-    self._prm_[key] = value
+    self[key] = value
   def __contains__(self, key):
     if self._no_null_:
       for ov in self._list_:
@@ -184,29 +286,51 @@ class Parameters(object):
       for ov in self._list_:
         if key in ov: return ov[key]
     raise KeyError, "Cannot find parameter `%s'" % key
-  def __setitem__(self, key, value):
+  #def __setitem__(self, key, value):  # -- inherited from dict
-    self._prm_[key] = value
+  #  self._prm_[key] = value
+
   # TODO in the future for iterative accesses:
   # -- not that essential because we know the name of
   # the parameters we want to get:
-  #def __iter__(self):
+  #def __iter__(self):  # -- inherited from dict
-  #  return self._prm_.__iter__
+  #  """Returns the iterator over key-value pairs owned by this object.
+  #  This does NOT return key-value pairs owned by the _override_dicts_.
+  #  """
+  #  return self._prm_.__iter__()
   #def _iteritems_(self):
   #  return self._prm_.iteritems()
   def _update_(self, srcdict):
-    self._prm_.update(srcdict)
+    """Updates the most overriding parameters with key-value pairs from
-  def _create_(self, kwparams="_opts_", userparams="opts", *defaults):
+    srcdict.
+    Srcdict can be either a dict-derived object or a Parameters-derived
+    object."""
+    dict.update(self, srcdict)
+  def __add__(self, srcdict):
+    """Returns a copy of the Parameters() object, with the most-overriding
+    parameters updated from the contents of srcdict."""
+    rslt = self._copy_()
+    rslt._update_(srcdict)
+    return rslt
+  def _create_(self, kwparam=None, userparam=None, *defaults):
     """Creates a new Parameters() object for standardized function-level
     parameter lookup.
     This routine *must* be called by the function where we want to access these
-    parameters, and where some parameters are to be overriden via function arguments,
+    parameters, and where some parameters are to be overriden via function
-    etc.
+    arguments, etc.
 
     The order of lookup is definite:
-    *
+    * local variables of the calling subroutine will take precedence
+    * the excess keyword-based parameters, 
+    * user-supplied Parameters-like object, which is 
+    * the dicts (passed in the `defaults' unnamed parameter list) is searched
+      *last*.
+      I suggest that this is used only as a last-effort safety net.
+      Ideally, the creating Parameters object itself should contain the
+      'factory defaults', as shown in the example below.
 
     class Something(object):
       def __init__(self, ...):
+        # self.opts holds the factory default
         self.opts = Parameters()
         self.opts.cleanup = True # example
     
@@ -214,40 +338,47 @@ class Parameters(object):
                _defaults_=dict(src="source.txt", info="INFO.txt", debug=1),
                **_opts_):
         # FIXME: use self-introspection to reduce kitchen-sink params here:
-      p = self.opts._create_()
+        p = self.opts._create_(_defaults_)
         #   ^ This will create an equivalent of:
         # Parameters(locals(), _opts_, _opts_.get('opts'), self.opts, _defaults)
+        # Now use it:
+        if p.cleanup:
+          ... do something
     """
     # Look up the stack of the calling function in order to retrieve its
     # local variables
     from inspect import stack
     caller = stack()[1][0] # one frame up; element-0 is the stack frame
 
-    # local variables will be the first to look for
+    if kwparam == None: kwparam = self._kwparam_
+    if userparam == None: userparam = self._userparam_
+
+    # local variables will be the first scope to look for
     localvars = caller.f_locals
     contexts = [ localvars ]
     # then _opts_ excess-keyword parameters (see example of doit() above)
-    if kwparams in localvars:
+    if kwparam in localvars:
-      _opts_ = localvars[kwparams]
+      _opts_ = localvars[kwparam]
       contexts.append(_opts_)
     else:
       _opts_ = {}
-    # then opts, an explicitly-defined argument carrying set of parameters
+    # then opts, an explicitly-defined argument which contain a set of parameters
-    if userparams in localvars:
+    if userparam in localvars:
-      opts = localvars[userparams]
+      opts = localvars[userparam]
       contexts.append(opts)
     else:
       opts = {}
-      if userparams in _opts_:
+      if userparam in _opts_:
-        contexts.append(_opts_[userparams])
+        contexts.append(_opts_[userparam])
 
     # then this own Parameters data will come here:
     contexts.append(self)
 
-    # then any defaults
+    # then any last-minute defaults
     contexts += [ d for d in defaults ]
 
     # Now construct the Parameters() class for this calling function:
-    return Parameters(*contexts)
+    return Parameters(_kwparam_=kwparam, _userparam_=userparam, *contexts)
-
 
+  #def __dict__(self):
+  #  return self._prm_