--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/attic/NodeType.py	Mon Jun 20 18:52:21 2005 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+"""each node descends from this base class"""
+
+class NodeType:
+    def __init__(self):
+        """TBD"""
+        self.ops = Ops()
+
+        ''' maybe
+        self.iports = []
+        self.oports = []
+        self.params = []
+        '''
+    def get_state(self, stateaccess):
+        """This is similar to the pickle.__getstate__ method, except
+        we need this alternate version in order to give the node
+        (which holds no state) access to its instance's state.
+
+        If your node keeps some transient items in its state dict
+        (such as a buffer of recently received inputs), it may want to
+        return a copy of the state dict without those items. set_state
+        should restore them properly (if they're missing from the
+        current state, which they might not be).
+
+        get_state might be called at any time, and it's certainly not
+        guaranteed that the node instance is going out of service.
+        get_state might get called to checkpoint the nodes for a
+        backup, for example. set_state might also get called anytime.
+        """
+        return stateaccess
+    def set_state(self, stateaccess, dict):
+        """dict (named after the pickle.__setstate__ argument) is
+        always a value that was previously returned from
+        get_state. Don't adjust the current nodetype's state, of course;
+        use dict to update stateaccess.  If there were elements
+        missing from dict (see the note in get_state for why this
+        might be the case), you should restore them here as
+        appropriate.
+        """        
+        stateaccess.update(dict)
+    def get_default_params(self):
+        '''Returns dictionary of param names and DataType instances.  DataTypes 
+        can be given values'''
+        return {}
+    def get_default_ports(self):
+        '''Returns pinless port objects'''
+        return {}