Unification of Methods and Functions

[James Moughan]

David MacQuigg <dmq at gain.com> wrote in message news:<piq2b05jqph812iffmspgd202u1mcun1qj at 4ax.com>...
> On 23 May 2004 06:18:54 -0700, moughanj at tcd.ie (James Moughan) wrote:
> 
> >David MacQuigg <dmq at gain.com> wrote in message news:<pndva0hi800r5c132j22jv42djd36not8m at 4ax.com>...
> >> On 22 May 2004 11:50:18 -0700, moughanj at tcd.ie (James Moughan) wrote:
> >> 
> >> >David MacQuigg <dmq at gain.com> wrote in message news:<9hgpa0d2iq5bb2ko4sngs5i6v4og90vqej at 4ax.com>...
> >> >> On 19 May 2004 23:26:38 -0700, moughanj at tcd.ie (James Moughan) wrote:
> >> >> >David MacQuigg wrote:
>  
> >> >> I like your example, but not as a *substitute* for Animals_2.  It's
> >> >> just too complex for non-CIS students at this point in the course.  I
> >> >> think I understand your concerns about Animals_2.  I think the best
> >> >> way to deal with those concerns is not by complicating the example, or
> >> >> by taking out everything that could lead to problems, but rather by
> >> >> pointing out the problems, and showing subsequent examples that fix
> >> >> those problems, even at the expense of more complexity.
> >> >> 
> >> >> If you have a simple all-in-one alternative to Animals_2, show me.
> >> >> 
> >> >
> >> >Again, clearly I have not communicated myself well - I mean a
> >> >*completely* different example to the entire Animals approach.  The
> >> >difficulty with writing a good Animals-type example comes from the
> >> >things which it is trying to do, which aren't especially well
> >> >expressed by a class-heirarchy.
> >> 
> >> What I am trying to do in Animals_2 is provide the simplest, most
> >> learnable example of Python OOP, which has at least one of every basic
> >> structure the students will encounter in a real program.  So I include
> >> bound, unbound, and static methods, but not metaclasses or
> >> descriptors.
> >> 
> >> Creating a good example like this is turning out to be more of a
> >> challenge than I expected.  I'm fairly happy with Animals_2, but I
> >> appreciate the "maintainability" problems you have pointed out, and
> >> have added footnotes accordingly.  The examples in Learning Python are
> >> too spread out in little pieces, and of course, no attention to the
> >> issues you are concerned about.  If you know of another place I can
> >> look for a good all-in-one teaching example, I am interested.
> >> 
> >
> >Just for the sake of example, this is one of the programs which I
> >always write while learning a language, written in a way I'd use to
> >demonstrate OO; all it does is read in a wordlist, then print out
> >synonyms for user-inputed words.  Handy for crosswords. ;-)
> 
> <snip examples>
> 
> I've posted these examples on our webpage at
> http://ece.arizona.edu/~edatools/Python/Examples  Let me know if I
> should make any changes.  These will be very helpful for students to
> see alternative styles in programming.
> 
> -- Dave

*Shakes head* OK, one change; please change the word synonyms to
anagrams in the text of the programs as well. :)  When I write a
program which can algorithmically detect synonyms it'll be really
something...