[vtk-developers] BUG? Abstract classes not "available" under Python

[Prabhu Ramachandran]

Hi,

With VTK-Python from CVS I notice that abstract classes are not made
available to the user in the vtk namespace.  For example under Python
vtk.vtkObjectBase is not available.  Earlier one could do this:

 print vtk.vtkObjectBase

This is no longer possible.  However, with Python the bases are always
accessible, which means one could do the following:

 print vtk.vtkObject.__bases__
 (<vtkclass libvtkCommonPython.vtkObjectBase at 0x4046a410>,)

and still get to the vtkObjectBase class.  

If one wants to organize/sort the VTK class hierarchy in Python, not
having vtk.vtkObjectBase is a pain.  Not having the abstract bases in
the module is IMHO quite unPythonic.  This also precludes the
possibility of someone deriving from an abstract base class.  I admit
that this is probably an unlikely scenario but in some of my code I
parse the entire VTK class hierarchy and not having the bases in the
vtk module namespace is a pain.  This also breaks backwards
compatibility and I am not sure if there are others who rely on the
availability of these classes.

Can this behavior be changed?  What do the others think?

cheers,
prabhu