get function name on definition

[Tcll]

basically, what I want to do is add a function name to an outside reference in a safe sys.modules reference without copying the name...
best idea I got is to call a 3rd party function:

def myfunc(args):
    x = None
    return x
addname() # add 'myfunc' to sys.modules['/safe_ref/']

anyone got any ideas??
including other methods

perhaps defining the function using a referenced string name:

def (addname('myfunc'))(args):

the whole sys.modules['/safe_ref/'] thing is used by external programs

basically, I'm trying to query my interface's functions as it's imported

[Tcll]

or I could just go with exec, but I was trying to avoid the loss in syntax highlights

def register(name, arguments, code):
    sys.modules['/safe_ref/'][name]=None; exec 'def %s(%s):%s'%(name, arguments, code) in globals()

register( 'myfunc', 'args', '''
    x = None
    return x
''')

I may just have to settle for this...

[Schol-R-LEA]

basically, what I want to do is add a function name to an outside reference in a safe sys.modules reference without copying the name...

Have you considered writing a decorator? Perhaps something like so:

@register
def myfunc(args):
    x = None
    return x

You could even set it up to allow multiple registries:

@register(myFunctionRegistry)
def myfunc(args):
    x = None
    return x

I'm not quite sure how you would implement it, but that seems like the most reasonable approach to take, given the semantics you want.

[Tcll]

decorators only work on function call, not on definition

[Gribouillis]

decorators only work on function call, not on definition

On the contrary, the decorator is called once, immediately after the function's definition

>>> def deco(f):
...  print f.__name__, 'is being defined'
...  return f
... 
>>> @deco
... def foo(x):
...  return x * x
... 
foo is being defined
>>> foo(3)
9
>>> 

[Schol-R-LEA]

decorators only work on function call, not on definition

Actually, they can be either one, sort of; the decorator syntax is just syntactic sugar for calling the decorator function with the defined function as its first argument. That decorator function can be any higher-order function that takes a function as its first positional parameter, and returns a function as its only return value.

Defining a decorator operation that is invoked at function call requires wrapping the defined function in a closure, and returning the closure as the value of the decorator, but the decorator itself runs at define time.

[Tcll]

well heck, you learn something new every day I guess :P
thanks guys, both of you get a +1 :)

@Schol: I understood grib's better than your explaination, though I still understood ;)
(I learn better by visual example, where if it hadn't been for grib, I'd probably still be questioning yours)
thanks