Combinatorial Derivation non-standard class init

[JMante1]

Currently, most of the top-level objects only require an identity to initiate but combinatorial derivation requires the template as well. Is it possible to change the way combinatorial derivations are initiated so that only an identity is required and the template can be set in a separate call?

[tcmitchell]

template is a required attribute of CombinatorialDerivation, which is why it is required in the constructor. This behavior is consistent across all pySBOL3 objects. Attributes that are required in the specification are required in the constructors. Objects that do not have any required attributes according to the specification only require an identity in their constructor.

For example, the Component constructor requires at least one type. An example of a non-TopLevel object that requires attributes to be provided to the constructor is ExternallyDefined which requires both a type and a definition in the constructor.

Internally we work around this constraint by providing a dummy value to the constructor. You can see an example of this in function build_combinatorial_derivation. There are many other examples of these functions in the pySBOL3 source code.

[tcmitchell]

It's been about a month with no activity on this issue. Has the question been answered? Is there any additional information needed?