Minor doc updates.

IPython/core/component.py

@@ -1,221 +1,229 b''
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # encoding: utf-8
 """
 A lightweight component system for IPython.
 
 Authors:
 
 * Brian Granger
 * Fernando Perez
 """
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #  Copyright (C) 2008-2009  The IPython Development Team
 #
 #  Distributed under the terms of the BSD License.  The full license is in
 #  the file COPYING, distributed as part of this software.
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Imports
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 from copy import deepcopy
 from weakref import WeakValueDictionary
 
 from IPython.utils.ipstruct import Struct
 from IPython.utils.traitlets import (
     HasTraitlets, TraitletError, MetaHasTraitlets, Instance, This
 )
 
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Helper classes for Components
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
 class ComponentError(Exception):
     pass
 
 class MetaComponentTracker(type):
     """A metaclass that tracks instances of Components and its subclasses."""
 
     def __init__(cls, name, bases, d):
         super(MetaComponentTracker, cls).__init__(name, bases, d)
         cls.__instance_refs = WeakValueDictionary()
         cls.__numcreated = 0
 
     def __call__(cls, *args, **kw):
         """Called when *class* is called (instantiated)!!!
         
         When a Component or subclass is instantiated, this is called and
         the instance is saved in a WeakValueDictionary for tracking.
         """
 
         instance = super(MetaComponentTracker, cls).__call__(*args, **kw)
         for c in cls.__mro__:
             if issubclass(cls, c) and issubclass(c, Component):
                 c.__numcreated += 1
                 c.__instance_refs[c.__numcreated] = instance
         return instance
 
     def get_instances(cls, name=None, root=None):
         """Get all instances of cls and its subclasses.
 
         Parameters
         ----------
         name : str
             Limit to components with this name.
         root : Component or subclass
             Limit to components having this root.
         """
         instances = cls.__instance_refs.values()
         if name is not None:
             instances = [i for i in instances if i.name == name]
         if root is not None:
             instances = [i for i in instances if i.root == root]
         return instances
 
     def get_instances_by_condition(cls, call, name=None, root=None):
         """Get all instances of cls, i such that call(i)==True.
 
         This also takes the ``name`` and ``root`` arguments of
         :meth:`get_instance`
         """
         return [i for i in cls.get_instances(name, root) if call(i)]
 
 
 class ComponentNameGenerator(object):
     """A Singleton to generate unique component names."""
 
     def __init__(self, prefix):
         self.prefix = prefix
         self.i = 0
 
     def __call__(self):
         count = self.i
         self.i += 1
         return "%s%s" % (self.prefix, count)
 
 
 ComponentNameGenerator = ComponentNameGenerator('ipython.component')
 
 
 class MetaComponent(MetaHasTraitlets, MetaComponentTracker):
     pass
 
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Component implementation
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
 class Component(HasTraitlets):
 
     __metaclass__ = MetaComponent
 
     # Traitlets are fun!
     config = Instance(Struct,(),{})
     parent = This()
     root = This()
 
     def __init__(self, parent, name=None, config=None):
         """Create a component given a parent and possibly and name and config.
 
         Parameters
         ----------
         parent : Component subclass
             The parent in the component graph.  The parent is used
             to get the root of the component graph.
         name : str
             The unique name of the component.  If empty, then a unique
             one will be autogenerated.
         config : Struct
             If this is empty, self.config = parent.config, otherwise
             self.config = config and root.config is ignored.  This argument
             should only be used to *override* the automatic inheritance of 
             parent.config.  If a caller wants to modify parent.config 
             (not override), the caller should make a copy and change 
             attributes and then pass the copy to this argument.
         
         Notes
         -----
         Subclasses of Component must call the :meth:`__init__` method of
         :class:`Component` *before* doing anything else and using 
         :func:`super`::
         
             class MyComponent(Component):
                 def __init__(self, parent, name=None, config=None):
                     super(MyComponent, self).__init__(parent, name, config)
                     # Then any other code you need to finish initialization.
 
         This ensures that the :attr:`parent`, :attr:`name` and :attr:`config`
         attributes are handled properly.
         """
         super(Component, self).__init__()
         self._children = []
         if name is None:
             self.name = ComponentNameGenerator()
         else:
             self.name = name
         self.root = self # This is the default, it is set when parent is set
         self.parent = parent
         if config is not None:
             self.config = deepcopy(config)
         else:
             if self.parent is not None:
                 self.config = deepcopy(self.parent.config)
 
     #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
     # Static traitlet notifiations
     #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
     def _parent_changed(self, name, old, new):
         if old is not None:
             old._remove_child(self)
         if new is not None:
             new._add_child(self)
 
         if new is None:
             self.root = self
         else:
             self.root = new.root
 
     def _root_changed(self, name, old, new):
         if self.parent is None:
             if not (new is self):
                 raise ComponentError("Root not self, but parent is None.")
         else:
             if not self.parent.root is new:
                 raise ComponentError("Error in setting the root attribute: "
                                      "root != parent.root")
 
     def _config_changed(self, name, old, new):
+        """Update all the class traits having a config_key with the config.
+
+        For any class traitlet with a ``config_key`` metadata attribute, we
+        update the traitlet with the value of the corresponding config entry.
+
+        In the future, we might want to do a pop here so stale config info
+        is not passed onto children.
+        """
         # Get all traitlets with a config_key metadata entry
         traitlets = self.traitlets('config_key')
         for k, v in traitlets.items():
             try:
                 config_value = new[v.get_metadata('config_key')]
             except KeyError:
                 pass
             else:
                 setattr(self, k, config_value)
 
     @property
     def children(self):
         """A list of all my child components."""
         return self._children
 
     def _remove_child(self, child):
         """A private method for removing children components."""
         if child in self._children:
             index = self._children.index(child)
             del self._children[index]
 
     def _add_child(self, child):
         """A private method for adding children components."""
         if child not in self._children:
             self._children.append(child)
 
     def __repr__(self):
         return "<Component('%s')>" % self.name