How can I memoize a class instantiation in Python?

Question

Ok, here is the real world scenario: I\'m writing an application, and I have a class that represents a certain type of files (in my case this is photographs but that detail

Answer 1

The parameters to __new__ also get passed to __init__, so:

def __init__(self, flubid):
    ...

You need to accept the flubid argument there, even if you don't use it in __init__

Here is the relevant comment taken from typeobject.c in Python2.7.3

/* You may wonder why object.__new__() only complains about arguments
   when object.__init__() is not overridden, and vice versa.

   Consider the use cases:

   1. When neither is overridden, we want to hear complaints about
      excess (i.e., any) arguments, since their presence could
      indicate there's a bug.

   2. When defining an Immutable type, we are likely to override only
      __new__(), since __init__() is called too late to initialize an
      Immutable object.  Since __new__() defines the signature for the
      type, it would be a pain to have to override __init__() just to
      stop it from complaining about excess arguments.

   3. When defining a Mutable type, we are likely to override only
      __init__().  So here the converse reasoning applies: we don't
      want to have to override __new__() just to stop it from
      complaining.

   4. When __init__() is overridden, and the subclass __init__() calls
      object.__init__(), the latter should complain about excess
      arguments; ditto for __new__().

   Use cases 2 and 3 make it unattractive to unconditionally check for
   excess arguments.  The best solution that addresses all four use
   cases is as follows: __init__() complains about excess arguments
   unless __new__() is overridden and __init__() is not overridden
   (IOW, if __init__() is overridden or __new__() is not overridden);
   symmetrically, __new__() complains about excess arguments unless
   __init__() is overridden and __new__() is not overridden
   (IOW, if __new__() is overridden or __init__() is not overridden).

   However, for backwards compatibility, this breaks too much code.
   Therefore, in 2.6, we'll *warn* about excess arguments when both
   methods are overridden; for all other cases we'll use the above
   rules.

*/