Confused about hasattr/getattr/namespaces

From: Brian Roberts (brian_at_mirror.org)
Date: 02/29/04 

Date: 29 Feb 2004 10:48:21 -0800

I'm confused about the use of hasattr/getattr, or possibly
namespaces. I know how to do this:

class UnderstandThis(object):
    def do_foo(self): pass
    def do_bar(self): pass
    def doit(self, cmd):
        funcname = 'do_' + cmd
        if hasattr(self, funcname):
            getattr(self, funcname)()
        else:
            print 'not found'

But if I try to do this with classes in a module (instead of
functions in a class):

class FooGenerator(object): ...
class BarGenerator(object): ...

def generate(cmd):
    clsname = cmd + 'Generator'
    if hasattr(???, clsname):
        etc...

I don't know what to use for ??? instead of self. If I print
globals() inside generate() it shows the two classes, but using
it in the hasattr line doesn't work -- huh? I can make it work
by wrapping the generate function in a (otherwise useless) class
and using self -- again, huh?

Couldn't find an explanation or example in the docs. In fact,
the description of vars/globals/locals (in section 2.1) just
confused me even more. Think I'm heading down the wrong path.
Can somebody please un-confuse me?

Brian.