[Python-Dev] functions vs methods (was Re: trunc())

[Raymond Hettinger]

> No, using trunc(x) makes it clear that the argument and return
> value are numbers. Using x.trunc() doesn't.

Not sure where this is notion comes from. 
Terry Reedy's post provides a datapoint to the contrary.
Besides, there is no problem along these lines that
can't be cured by a better method name:

    f.integer_portion()

Also, if you go the method route, then the API can easily
be expanded to cover all the normal rounding methods:

   f.round_to_even()
   f.round_half_up()
       ...

These are all specific and explicit.

Also, we can take advantage of the ABC mixin capabilities
to automatically provide all of these given one or two of
them as primitives.


Raymond


P.S I get no shortage of hits for searches like:
  http://www.google.com/search?q=truncate+string