On 4/6/06, Phillip J. Eby <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The issue is more that Java programmers think they need to use > staticmethod because that sounds to them like a Java "static method", > instead of doing something more appropriate like a classmethod or a > module-level function. I worry that "overloading" will make them > think it should be used the way it's used in Java, where it often > substitutes for Java's lack of default arguments. Not only that, but > overloading in Java means you have to write different implementations > for different types, even in cases where duck typing would be more > appropriate. It's especially confusing given Java's mix of > object-based and non-object numeric types. ISTM that C++ has even > worse connotations for this.
But at least C++ has default argument values. I don't believe that Java programmers using Python will attempt to write multiple overloaded versions of a method for different types that have the same API (duck typing). If they do, they have more serious problems. > So, when I say that "overload" has the wrong connotations, I'm not > talking about some abstract understanding of what it is or does, I'm > talking about the wrong connotations for their practical intuition of > how the thing should be *used*. The use cases for overloading in the > languages that have it are way different, and if you move those > concepts over to generic functions without a critical > reinterpretation of the concept, you will write atrocious Python that > will be hard to read and perform badly. I think that the solution to this would be a book or course "Python for Java programmers". Not using the most natural name for a feature because Java programmers might misunderstand it sound like the wrong motivation. Plus, the syntax for using overloaded functions/methods is sufficiently verbose that the elegance of using default argument values is hard to miss. -- --Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/) _______________________________________________ Python-3000 mailing list Python-3000@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-3000 Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-3000/archive%40mail-archive.com
