prototypes in Python [was: what is good in Prothon]

[Greg Ewing]

David MacQuigg wrote:

> On 1 May 2004 22:34:27 -0700, michele.simionato at poste.it (Michele
> Simionato) wrote:
 >
>>Probably you do not realize that methods and functions are *already*
>>unified in Python: they are both examples of descriptors.
 >
> Interesting!  I wish that unification at the primitive level had been
> provided in the original design of Python.

It was. Methods have always been no more than functions that
happen to live in classes, and they still are. Descriptors are
a red herring here; they're just a generalisation that allows for
some new things. They don't unify anything that was previously
existing but not unified.

-- 
Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept,
University of Canterbury,	
Christchurch, New Zealand
http://www.cosc.canterbury.ac.nz/~greg