[Python-Dev] [OT] implicit return values
Xavier Morel
catch-all at masklinn.net
Fri Sep 4 08:34:44 CEST 2009
On 3 Sep 2009, at 23:33 , Greg Ewing wrote:
Xavier Morel wrote:
>
>> Methods yes (and that's one of the few Smalltalk design "features"
>> I consider truly dumb, considering it has message cascading)
>
> Cascading is something different -- it's for sending
> multiple messages to the *same* receiver. It's not
> dumb to have both.
I know what cascading is for. The issue is that with message cascading
+ the "yourself" message, you *never* need to chain on self (you can
just cascade and -- if you end up needing the instance to drop down at
the end of the cascade -- send `yourself`).
Chaining on self is completely redundant in smalltalk as the purpose
of this pattern is *also* to send a sequence of messages to the same
receiver (something message cascading already handles & guarantees).
Therefore defaulting method to self-chaining is very dumb and serves
no purpose whatsoever. It doesn't make the language easier to use,
less verbose or more practical. It just wastes return values.
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