Consider a Python class with a number of @staticmethod methods and few instance methods. The static methods don't accept an instance of the defining class as parameters.
Sounds like a module masquerading as a class (which is common to see in a language like Java where there are no methods outside of classes, so the only way to make something that looks like a module is to make a static only class). If the static methods are doing something that's actually related to the class as a whole, such as managing a pool of them, generating them (factories) or something along those lines then yes, they might be legitimate static methods. Otherwise, they probably should just be module level methods.
SomeDataContainer.from_file), the only reason not to make it a classmethod instead is if the class is not expected to ever be subclassed.
– user7043
Oct 3 '11 at 17:32
