[Python-3000] Abilities / Interfaces

[Guido van Rossum]

On 11/22/06, Jonathan LaCour <jonathan-lists at cleverdevil.org> wrote:
> Phillip J. Eby wrote:
>
> > In essence, interfaces turn libraries into "frameworks", but generic
> > functions turn frameworks into libraries.  I didn't really discover
> > this until January of last year, though, when I did some experiments
> > in replacing various PEAK interfaces with generic functions.
>
> This is easily the most important part of the conversation, IMO, and I
> would hate for it to be missed. "Interfaces" in the Java universe are a
> hard contract that everyone has to agree upon up-front, and if you don't
> agree, you have to create your own framework that does the very same
> things in a different way. What you end up with is a world of many
> competing frameworks, none of which interoperate.
>
> The alternative may not be as *familiar* but it certainly paints a much
> brighter picture. If you have two different frameworks that take
> slightly different approaches (or even _radically_ different approaches)
> to the same problems, you can make them work together as one, rather
> than having to pick one or the other. Its like framework detente!
>
> Adopting Java-like interfaces just because they are "familiar" would be
> a huge mistake, as it would condemn Python to the limitations of such an
> implementation unnecessarily. This is Python 3000, not Java, and while I
> certainly understand the argument of familiarity, I won't let something
> that seems a tad magical at first scare me into a comfortable decision.
>
> I have actually used generic functions (using RuleDispatch) in practice
> and find them to not only be hugely powerful, but much more pragmatic.
> Am I the only one out there who sees it this way?

Sorry, but that was about as informative as a "+1" vote.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)