On Mar 25, 2007, at 11:28 AM, Charles Yeomans wrote:
>>
>> If I were to try say what the second line is doing it is something
>> like:
>> "get the value associated with the key "name" from myDictionary and
>> assign it to "myvariable".
>>
>> If the second line were:
>> myvariable=mydictionary.KEY("name")
>> it would make more sense to me.
>
> But it would be wrong. mydictionary.value returns the value
> associated to the key passed as the parameter. You described it
> correctly above.
I was making up the syntax, without a lot of thought. But the point
is that the 'correct' line doesn't have the word "key" in it, so this
must be implicit knowledge. It's more difficult. And making a
grammatical sentence of it is not easy.
An applescript-type syntax might be
"get the value associated with the key name from mydictionary"
While wordy, this is a sentence I can read.
Another problem with dictionaries: the word 'dictionary'. While an
adequate description of how things are stored and accessed, the name
hides the power.
A novice is frequently scared of doing things wrong and getting into
traps. This novice would be hesitant to use a dictionary as a not-
obvious general method for returning
multiple values from a method. If a dictionary were called something
like a "pairedValueHolder" its general utility might be more obvious
(not a serious suggestion).
Also, Normal Palardy's suggestions are intriguing and something to
think about.
john kubie
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