[Twisted-Python] A Python metaclass for Twisted allowing __init__ to return a Deferred

[Terry Jones]

I just posted a blog article with title as above: http://bit.ly/1whZUK

Very briefly, I wrote a metaclass to allow you to write classes whose
__init__ method uses deferreds. Your __init__ can create deferreds, call
functions that return deferreds, and of course return a deferred itself
(that's the whole point). Your class instance wont be available until after
the deferred your __init__ returns has fired.

You use it like this:

    from txDeferredInitMeta import TxDeferredInitMeta

    class MyClass(object):
        __metaclass__ = TxDeferredInitMeta
        def __init__(self):
            d = aFuncReturningADeferred()
            return d

    def cb((instance, result)):
        # instance is an instance of MyClass
        # result is from the callback chain of aFuncReturningADeferred
        pass

    d = MyClass()
    d.__instantiate__()
    d.addCallback(cb)

Metaclass code & test suite at http://foss.fluidinfo.com/txDeferredInitMeta.zip

For more details on how it works see http://bit.ly/1whZUK

I'll be happy to explain why this is useful if anyone cares. Or maybe
there's a better way to do this that I don't know about. I always have the
feeling that I know just the barest amount about what's out there in the
Twisted codebase, and that every problem I run into must have already been
encountered by many and solved in some insanely elegant and general way.
In any case, I had fun.

Terry