Unification of Methods and Functions

[Bengt Richter]

On Fri, 21 May 2004 05:08:20 -0700, David MacQuigg <dmq at gain.com> wrote:

>On Fri, 21 May 2004 13:45:52 +1200, Greg Ewing
><greg at cosc.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
>
>>David MacQuigg wrote:
>>> I'm still waiting for that one simple example that you say will do it
>>> all, and do it right.
>>
>>I don't think you should be trying to cram all the features
>>of OOP into a single example.
>
>I agree.  Digestible chunks is the right approach.  Animals_1.py is
>the first example of classes, including data, methods, instance
>variables, and inheritance.  Thats a pretty large chunk, but what
>makes it digestible is the student's prior knowledge of modules,
>functions, and all forms of data.
>
>Animals_2a1.py (the current version) adds more levels to the
>hierarchy, a special method __init__, static methods, bound and
>unbound methods, the odd scoping rule for class variables, and
>_private variables.  This is all the basics that students will need if
>they will be writing their own classes.
>
>There probably won't be an Animals_3, but instead, "level 3" will be a
>bunch of examples to illustrate various techniques, like the robust
>programming that JM has been pushing, and maybe some topics from
>chapters 21 - 23 of Learning Python.
>
>>Also, I worry that the zoo topic will seem contrived. Why
>>not base your examples on some real problems from your
>>audience's subject area?
>
>Given the goals of the level one and two examples ( cover all the
>basic features in two simple examples ) I think any example will be
>contrived.  The level 3 examples will be the right place to introduce
>real circuit design problems.
>
If you take some wood and saw off pieces to make a box
with some fasteners, and then you put the leftover pieces
of wood *in* the box, you have pieces of wood with two different
kinds of relationship to the box.

I suspect reflecting on this distinction in terms of your examples
might be fruitful.

I can't spend the time to participate more than stolen moments right now,
so I haven't seen all of the thread. Sorry if I am rehashing something.

Regards,
Bengt Richter