Wrapping bound methods

I've written this small class in Python that wraps bound methods but does not prevent the deletion of self.

• Do you have any thoughts on my code?

• Do you think I handle errors appropriately?

• Is it missing anything?

• What should be done to make it more robust?

• Is the documentation clear enough?

``
import weakref

class WeakBoundMethod:
"""
Wrapper around a method bound to a class instance. As opposed to bare
bound methods, it holds only a weak reference to the self object,
allowing it to be deleted.

This can be useful when implementing certain kinds of systems that
manage callback functions, such as an event manager.

"""
def __init__(self, meth):
"""
Initializes the class instance. It should be ensured that methods
passed through the meth parameter are always bound methods. Static
methods and free functions will produce an AssertionError.

"""
assert (hasattr(meth, '__func__') and hasattr(meth, '__self__')),\
'Object is not a bound method.'

self._self = weakref.ref(meth.__self__)
self._func = meth.__func__

def __call__(self, *args, **kw):
"""
Calls the bound method and returns whatever object the method returns.
Any arguments passed to this will also be forwarded to the method.

In case an exception is raised by the bound method, it will be
caught and thrown again to the caller of this WeakBoundMethod object.

Calling this on objects that have been collected will result in
an AssertionError being raised.

"""
assert self.alive(), 'Bound method called on deleted object.'

try:
return self._func(self._self(), *args, **kw)
except Exception, e:
raise e

def alive(self):
"""
Checks whether the self` object the method is bound to has
been collected.

"""
return self._sel

class WeakBoundMethod:

I suggest making it a new-style class by inheriting from object.

assert (hasattr(meth, '__func__') and hasattr(meth, '__self__')),\
           'Object is not a bound method.'

Don't do this. Just let the invalid parameter types raise attribute errors when you try to fetch the __func__ and __self__. You don't gain anything by checking them beforehand.

assert self.alive(), 'Bound method called on deleted object.'

Raising an Assertion here is a bad choice. Assertions are for thing that should never happen, but having the underlying self object cleaned up doesn't really count. Raise an exception like weakref.ReferenceError. That way a caller can reasonably catch the error.

The documentation is very clear, well done.

EDIT

try:
        return self._func(self._self(), *args, **kw)
    except Exception as e:
        raise e

Why are you catching an exception only to rethrow it? That's really pointless.

I'd write the whole function as:

def __call__(self, *args, **kw):
    _self = self._self()
    if _self is None:
        raise weakref.ReferenceError()

    return self._func(_self, *args, **kw)

StackExchange Code Review Q#4574, answer score: 3