🔒 Resolving Circular Dependency

[visual quest]

Imagine you have a basic tensor class with softmax. Softmax is a random example here.

    from .nn import Softmax

    class Tensor(data):
        def __init__():
            self.data = data
        
        def softmax():
            return Softmax()

and you have this Softmax implementation in nn.softmax.py

    from .tensor import Tensor

    def Softmax(data):
        # do fancy math
        result = ...
        return Tensor(result)

Now we can do:

# import Tensor, Softmax

X = tensor(...)
X.softmax()
Softmax(X)

the current design is flawed though because we have a circular dependency: Tensor::softmax() uses Softmax() which uses Tensor which uses ....

How can I solve this?

Edit: Without using TYPE_CHECKING for type hints and moving the import Tensor inside of Softmax(). I want to avoid import inside functions.

[unique jasper]

@visual quest

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[visual quest]

ah my actual issue is solved simply by using from __future__ import annotations

ah shoudl read correctly, my error is only regarding the type. everything makes sense now.

.cloe

[lone robin]

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[visual quest]

.close

[lone robin]

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[visual quest]

!close

[unique jasper]

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