At 6:03 PM -0400 9/3/02, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>From: Dan Sugalski [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> This will potentially get out of hand quickly
>
>I don't think this is a case where out-of-hand-generalization is necessary.
>I'm only saying that there could be a handy shorthand for a single very
>common case.
Each object has its own common case, and strings aren't always it.
Date could reasonably want strings, but also an integer timestamp
makes sense, as does an array with localtime information. Then again,
maybe initializing from a localtime object would make sense.
How about a JPEG object? Might take a string with the image data, an
array with byte data, a filehandle that's got the data to it.
There is no one common case that's common for everything, or even
most things. If you want automatic initializers, you have to bite the
bullet and go full multimethod, or spend the rest of eternity
explaining why string-only "seemed like a good enough idea at the
time"
--
Dan
--------------------------------------"it's like this"-------------------
Dan Sugalski even samurai
[EMAIL PROTECTED] have teddy bears and even
teddy bears get drunk
