[Python-ideas] Does jargon make learning more difficult?
Steven D'Aprano
steve at pearwood.info
Thu Aug 23 07:40:12 EDT 2018
On Wed, Aug 22, 2018 at 06:50:29PM +0000, Dan Sommers wrote:
> On Thu, 23 Aug 2018 03:44:07 +1000, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>
> > On Wed, Aug 22, 2018 at 12:11:40PM -0500, Abe Dillon wrote:
>
> > difflib tests include this call:
> >
> > sm = difflib.SequenceMatcher(isjunk=lambda x: x == ' ', ...)
[...]
> When you talk about intent, I think about use cases. In the difflib
> code I quoted above, is the intent to define a function, or to
> instantiate a SequenceMatcher? Well, no, it's probably to compute some
> sort of difference. Instatiating a SequenceMatcher and defining isjunk
> are details.
>
> So you're both wrong. :-P
>
> Or you're both right. :-/
In this case, "intent" could refer to (for example):
Should we accuse Fred Bloggs of plagarism or not?
+- decide whether two documents came from the same source;
+- decide whether the diff between two text strings falls
within some threshold;
+- initiate and use a SequenceMatcher object;
+- provide an isjunk predicate function;
+- implement a specific predicate function.
Because we are talking about lambda syntax specifically, I didn't think
the higher hierachies of intent were relevant, so I didn't mention them.
I thought we could focus on the two relevant to the syntax we're
discussing:
Provide an isjunk predicate function;
+- implement a specific predicate function.
and take the higher levels as given. Given those two levels, "Provide a
predicate function" is at a higher level than the implementation of that
predicate function.
I'm sorry if that wasn't clear.
--
Steve
More information about the Python-ideas
mailing list