Merging latest improvements including a revamped Repo interface before more changes are to be done on the way diffing is handled

Merge branch 'improvements'

* improvements:
  Improved archive function by allowing it to directly write to an output stream - previously it would cache everything to memory and try to provide zipping functionality itself
  repo: made init and clone methods less specific, previously they wanted to do it 'barely' only. New method names closely follow the default git command names
  repo.commit_delta_base: removed
  Object can now create objects of the proper type in case one attempts to create an object directly - this feature is used in several places now, allowing for additional type-checking
  repo: removed commits_between but added a note about how this can be achieved using the iter_commits method; reorganized methods within the type as a start for more interface changes
  Added Commit.iter_parents to iterate all parents
  repo: removed a few methods because of redundancy or because it will be obsolete once the interface overhaul is finished. This commit is just intermediate
  All times are not stored as time_struct, but as simple int to consume less memory

1 files changed, 15 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/lib/git/objects/base.py b/lib/git/objects/base.py
index 07538ada..3b48e066 100644
--- a/lib/git/objects/base.py
+++ b/lib/git/objects/base.py
@@ -5,17 +5,32 @@
 # the BSD License: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
 import os
 from git.utils import LazyMixin
+import utils
 	
 _assertion_msg_format = "Created object %r whose python type %r disagrees with the acutal git object type %r"
 
 class Object(LazyMixin):
 	"""
 	Implements an Object which may be Blobs, Trees, Commits and Tags
+	
+	This Object also serves as a constructor for instances of the correct type::
+	
+		inst = Object(repo,id)
 	"""
 	TYPES = ("blob", "tree", "commit", "tag")
 	__slots__ = ("repo", "id", "size", "data" )
 	type = None			# to be set by subclass
 	
+	def __new__(cls, repo, id, *args, **kwargs):
+		if cls is Object:
+			hexsha, typename, size = repo.git.get_object_header(id)
+			obj_type = utils.get_object_type_by_name(typename)
+			inst = super(Object,cls).__new__(obj_type, repo, hexsha, *args, **kwargs)
+			inst.size = size
+			return inst
+		else:
+			return super(Object,cls).__new__(cls, repo, id, *args, **kwargs)
+	
 	def __init__(self, repo, id):
 		"""
 		Initialize an object by identifying it by its id. All keyword arguments