[Python-Dev] PEP 246, redux

[Carlos Ribeiro]

On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 08:50:27 +0100, Alex Martelli <aleax at aleax.it> wrote:
> Ooops -- sorry; I wouldn't have imagined Brazilian hits would swamp the
> google hits to that extent, mostly qualifying post-grad courses and the
> like... seems to be an idiom there for that.

'Lato sensu' is used to indicate short post-graduate level courses
that don't give one any recognized degree such as 'MSc', or 'master'.
It's pretty much like a specialization course on some specific area,
usually offered by small private universities. It's like a fever
around here - everyone does just to add something to the resume - and
has spawned a entire branch in the educational industry (and yeah,
'industry' is the best word for it).

Some schools refer to traditional post graduate courses as 'stricto
sensu'. I don't have the slightest idea about where they did get this
naming from. It's also amazing how many hits you'll get for the wrong
spelling: 'latu sensu' & 'strictu sensu', mostly from Brazil, and also
from some spanish-speaking countries.

> Also, a reflection: taxonomy, the classification of things (living
> beings, rocks, legal precedents, ...) into categories, is a discipline
> with many, many centuries of experience behind it.  I think it is
> telling that taxonomists found out they require _two_ kinds of
> ``inheritance'' to do their job (no doubt there are all kind of
> _nuances_, but specialized technical wording exists for two kinds:
> "strict-sense" and "broad-sense")... they need to be able to assert
> that "A is a B _broadly speaking_" (or specifically "_strictly
> speaking_") so often that they evolved specific terminology.  Let's
> hope it doesn't take OOP many centuries to accept that both "stricto
> sensu inheritance" (Liskovianly-correct) AND "lato sensu inheritance"
> are needed to do _our_ jobs!-)

Good point!

-- 
Carlos Ribeiro
Consultoria em Projetos
blog: http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com
blog: http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com
mail: carribeiro at gmail.com
mail: carribeiro at yahoo.com