If you want early failure, in an appropriate way, assert() is the way to go.

It would be fun to throw that sentence out to a nonprogrammer, without a hint as to its context, for a guess as to what was being said :)

What Java is giving is that it takes positional arguments and demultiplexes for you based on type (and only on type). What python gives you is that you can demultiplex based on name. Since python can mix positional parameters and named parameters, and you can test type yourself easily enough, it seems more powerful to me.

Not disagreeing - but the customer is always right, and in this case customer Numero Uno is me, who refuses to work with named arguments in building his geometric constructions. Just interrupts the flow, he claims. As he is me I find it hard to disagree. Making life harder for me, the Developer - who must try to accomodate myself by working with position arguments alone. We - the whole crew of us - will get there (or close enough) eventually, I'm sure. Art