Unification of Methods and Functions

[Antoon Pardon]

Op 2004-05-10, James Moughan schreef <moughanj at tcd.ie>:
> David MacQuigg <dmq at gain.com> wrote in message news:<889t90tdl9o9t25cv5dj6k5rnktuce0jin at 4ax.com>...
>> On 8 May 2004 07:07:09 -0700, moughanj at tcd.ie (James Moughan) wrote:
>> 
>> >David MacQuigg <dmq at gain.com> wrote in message news:<4a9o90pbu122npgf4m2hrgg04g2j0ic6ka at 4ax.com>...
>> >> On 7 May 2004 06:31:51 -0700, moughanj at tcd.ie (James Moughan) wrote:
>>  <snip>
>> >> Also, if you are calling
>> >> a function that has an instance variable ( .length ) and no instance
>> >> has been set by a prior binding, you would need to set __self__
>> >> manually.
>> >> __self__ = foo; print FooLen()
>> >
>> >???!!!??? 
>> >
>> >This is what I was talking about in my first post, global variables
>> >which change depending on where you are in the code... as I understand
>> >what you're saying, __self__ will have to be set, then reset when a
>> >method is called from within a method and the exits.  And __self__
>> >could presumably be changed halfway through a method, too. I'm sorry,
>> >I don't see this as being more explicit or simpler.
>> 
>> The setting of __self__ happens automatically, just like the setting
>> of the first argument in a call from an instance.  The user doesn't
>> have to worry about it.  
>
> Explicit is better than implicit, especially in getting people to
> understand things. :)

I'm a bit sick of this argument. There is a lot om implicity
going on in python. if obj belongs to cls then obj.method()
is syntactic sugar for cls.method(obj). That looks like
a big implicite way to handle things in python.

Likewise all those magical methods to emulate numerical
types or containers or sequences or all ways that allow
the python programmer to do things implicitely throught
the use of operators instead of through explicitely calling
the desired method.

If implicit is such a negative thing to be avoided whenever
possible, python would look a lot different and I probably
wouldn't be using it.

-- 
Antoon Pardon