[Edu-sig] Freedom: some Smalltalk history and Python implications

[Arthur]

Paul D. Fernhout wrote:

>In the syntax case, I am continuing to point out that Smalltalk's keyword 
>syntax (e.g. "Point x: 10 y: 20" versus "Point(10, 20)" ) produces code 
>where all arguments are labeled and so it is easier to read and 
>understand.
>
That is, IMO, an arbitrary point of view, at best.

Touches a particular nerve with me because I went to great trouble in 
the design of PyGeo to *avoid* the use of keyword arguments, feeling it 
in fact important that in creating a construction one should be in 
geometry mindset mode, not programmming mindset mode, and therefore 
*not* have to be explicit in stating the obvious.

See 
http://pygeo.sourceforge.net/docs/Overview.html#built-in-geometric-intelligence

The point is not whether my design is right or wrong, but that I found 
myself to be using  a tool that allowed me to express my design exactly 
as I wanted to - right or wrong.

Would I have had the same right to be wrong using Smalltalk?

Art