New PyObjC Protocols

PyObjC now (in svn) has a new protocol that makes it significantly easier to handle the special cases of Python -> Objective-C bridging:

• The Python to Objective-C bridge now looks for a __pyobjc_object__ attribute to get a PyObjC object from a Python object.

Although the news item is short, it has far-reaching implications. I'm pretty certain that I've been able to remove hundreds of lines of code in just NSNumber support with this generalization:

• NSNumber instances are bridged to a float, long, or int subclass that uses __pyobjc_object__. NSDecimalNumber is bridged to Foundation.NSDecimal, which now supports __pyobjc_object__. This eliminates a HUGE amount of cruft in objc._conveniences.

Speaking of protocols, I also added support so that the formal ones work!

• PyObjC classes can now declare that they implement formal protocols, for example:

import objc
from Foundation import *
class MyLockingClass(NSObject, objc.protocolNamed('NSLocking')):
    # implementation
    pass

There's still a lot of room for improvement in the Protocol support:

• Protocols are not type checked. Anything in the base list that is a PyObjCObject will get chunked into the protocol list. Will probably crash if you do something really stupid (though there's plenty of that in PyObjC anyway)
• Protocols can not be created from PyObjC
• selectors don't benefit from the Protocol information like they do for informal protocols
• PyObjC doesn't verify that you implement the protocol like it does for informal protocols
• objc.protocolNamed is probably pretty slow, should use a lookup hash

There's also a nice new convenience in PyObjCTools.KeyValueCoding:

• PyObjCTools.KeyValueCoding has a new kvc class that allows Pythonic Key-Value Coding.

  • __getitem__ is mapped to valueForKeyPath:
  • __setitem__ is mapped to setValue:forKeyPath:
  • __getattr__ is mapped to valueForKey:
  • __setattr__ is mapped to setValue:forKey:

  The kvc class uses __pyobjc_object__, so it may cross the bridge as the wrapped object.