On Sun, Aug 31, 2008 at 11:02:17AM -0700, Gus Wirth wrote:
In this context a function is something that can be called from anywhere in the program; it just exists "out there" to be used by anything. A local method is a function that belongs to the object; only code in the object can call the local method, other code outside the object doesn't know about it.
There are different ideas about what a method is and the ideas strongly effect the language design. The most prevelant notion is that a method has a hidden argument that represents the object. The partulcar fuction that is called depends on that object instance that is referenced. Other languages, such as Common Lisp and Ada make the object argument explicit. This has an advantage that the object system can dispatch on more than one argument, which maps better to some problems. Others are somewhere in between. Python uses a hidden argument, but the methods can also be called explicitly by naming the argument. Ada 2005 allows for the dot '.' notation for a hidden argument that is explicitly declared in the declaration of the function/procedure, but need not be specified in the call. David -- KPLUG-List@kernel-panic.org http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
