xnomo3.py: Internal maintenance specification

Users don't call this constructor directly. Its purpose is to convert XML nodes into Taxon instances. Consequently, its calling sequence looks like this:

# - - -   T a x o n . _ _ i n i t _ _   - - -

    def __init__ ( self, txny, parentTaxon, taxonNode ):
        """Constructor for a Taxon instance.
        """

Note that this constructor is recursive. It converts not only the given taxonNode but all its descendants. Pass it the root TAXON_N node, and it will build the entire tree.

The first step is to set up the parts of the instance that point elsewhere.

        #-- 1 --
        self.txny = txny
        self.parent = parentTaxon

Next, we set up the parts of the instance that are derived from the XML node we're converting:

        #-- 2 --
        # [ self.abbr    :=  STD_ABBR_A attribute from taxonNode, or None
        #                    if there is no such attribute
        #   self.__raweng  :=  ENG_A attribute from taxonNode
        #   self.rank    :=  rank whose code is the RANK_A
        #                    attribute from taxonNode
        #   self.sci     :=  SCI_A attribute from taxonNode
        #   self.status  :=  STATUS_A attribute from taxonNode, or None
        #                    if there is no such attribute
        #   self.txKey   :=  TX_KEY_A attribute from taxonNode ]
        self.abbr = taxonNode.attrib.get(rnc.STD_ABBR_A, None)
        self.__rawEng = taxonNode.findtext(rnc.ENG_N).strip()
        rankCode = taxonNode.attrib[rnc.RANK_A]
        self.rank = txny.hier.lookupRankCode ( rankCode )
        self.sci = taxonNode.attrib[rnc.SCI_A]
        self.status = taxonNode.attrib.get(rnc.STATUS_A, None)
        self.txKey = taxonNode.attrib[rnc.TX_KEY_A]

See Section 9.14, “Taxon.__engNames(): Build the variants on the English name”.

        #-- 3 --
        # [ self.eng  :=  as invariant, from self.__rawEng
        #   self.engComma  :=  as invariant, from self.__rawEng
        #   self.tex  :=  as invariant, from self.__rawEng
        #   self.texComma  :=  as invariant, from self.__rawEng ]
        self.__engNames()

Finally, we recursively translate all this node's descendants into Taxon instances, and set up the .__childList attribute as a list of them.

        #-- 4 --
        # [ self.__childList  +:=  Taxon instances made from taxonNode's
        #       children, recursively containing all descendants of
        #       those children ]
        self.__childList = [
            Taxon(txny, self, childElt)
            for childElt in taxonNode.findall(rnc.TAXON_N) ]