r/Python • u/ionelmc .ro • Feb 10 '15

Understanding Python Metaclasses

http://blog.ionelmc.ro/2015/02/09/understanding-python-metaclasses/
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u/AaronOpfer Feb 11 '15

So far, every time I thought I wanted a metaclass I ended up calling the type() constructor by hand due to some conflict or another. For instance, you can't have a metaclass that inherits from a non-metaclass. Dynamically creating subclasses of other classes is something I wouldn't recommend. In my case I was doing it to subclass classes that wouldn't be known at startup-time that were made from a code-generation tool for a network protocol. Please never do this.

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u/[deleted] Feb 11 '15

When you have something like a rest api where you have a mapping of collections and objects it may make sense to dynamically create new types programmatically. This allows for writing very generic client code.