we currently have a project where we calculate local roles dynamically. This involves using a computed attribute as an __ac_local_roles__ replacement. Unfortunately this doesn't mix too well with assigning them manually, although our computed attribute takes care.

Why is this and what can we do against that?

__ac_local_roles__ is a dict. It's not a PersistentDictionary, but an ordinary Python dict. Therefore, to obey the rules of persistence, the Role.py local role machinery reassigns __ac_local_roles__ after every change.

I'd like to change this, so that Role.py sets _p_changed instead, which is what it tries to signal. Additionally you need to explicitly assign __ac_local_roles__ instead of just getting

dict=self.__ac_local_roles__ or {}

so this becomes

dict=self.__ac_local_roles__ if dict is None: self.__ac_local_roles = dict = {}

This change works without disrupting the unit tests and I would love to get it on Zope 2.8. Any objections?

I take silence as a 'no objections'.

Ok with me.

Although there must be a number of products out there that manipulate local roles directly and don't obey that... But probably at this point it's not important.

But please add a small comment to the code to the effect that you don't want to re-assign __ac_local_roles__ because it may be a complex object.

Florent