about sort and dictionary

[Alex Martelli]

Neil Hodgson <nyamatongwe+thunder at gmail.com> wrote:

> Magnus Lycka:
> 
> > Except when it isn't obvious. What constitutes mutation of an object?
> > C++ handles this with 'const', and lets the programmer cheat by using
> > transient member variables, since there are cases when you actually
> > want to mutate objects a little, but claim that you don't...
> 
>     Ruby uses '!' not for mutation but to indicate surprising or 
> destructive mutation. If it was placed on all mutators, code would be
> full of '!'s. '!' is less common on methods that modify the receiver 
> than on methods that mutate other arguments.

Thanks for the clarification!  Unfortunately, this variation on the
convention does make it substantially less clear/sharp/well-defined, and
therefore less useful; whenever I call a mutator I must memorize or work
out (or guess) whether the author considered its mutation "surprising or
destructive" to know whether I need to append a bang or not, which is
peeving; so, I'm now happily reconciled to Python never adopting this.


Alex