dynamically generated runtime methods & reflection

[Alex Martelli]

Bruno Desthuilliers <bruno.42.desthuilliers at wtf.websiteburo.oops.com>
wrote:

> Josiah Carlson a écrit :
> (snip)
> > Well, the particular operation is typically called 'currying a 
> > function', 
> 
> <pedantic>
> it's not 'currying' but 'partial application'.
> 
> Currying is somehow the reverse of partial : it's a way of building a
> multiple-args function from single-args functions.
> </pedantic>

Wikipedia says "currying or Schönfinkelisation[1] is the technique of
transforming a function that takes multiple arguments into a function
that takes a single argument" -- and FWIW I agree with Wikipedia in this
case; the reverse (going from single-arg to multiple-args) would be
"uncurrying", though I don't think I've ever used that term myself.

functools.partial's name may be more precise (because it can, e.g., go
from a function taking 3 arguments to one taking 2 -- not just from N
down to 1) but your 'pedantic' remark seems pedantically wrong:-).


Alex