Collection interfaces

[Simon Callan]

In message <97m0c7080c at news2.newsguy.com>
          "Alex Martelli" <aleaxit at yahoo.com> wrote:

> there STILL is no silver bullet.

Years back, I became aware to the treu reason why there is no silver
bullet for programming, and why there can *never* be one. We're trying
to kill the wrong monster.

As any student of horror will tell you, silver bullets are the
solution for dealing with were-wolves, which are relatively simple
creatures, who only want to rip your throat out and eat you. Once you
manage to kill one of these, they have the decency to stay dead, and
not bother you any more.

We are not dealing with this monster.

When you are programming, you are wrestling with a vampire, a subtle,
intelligent enemy, that slowly drains the life out of you over a long
period of time. What makes it worse is that the vampire can return
from the dead, usually because some idiot (manager?) wants it back,
thinking that they can benefit from it.

When fighting a vampire, your only weapons are sunlight (knowledge?),
a sharp stake (language / IDE?), and possibly a cat[1].

This still leaves the problem of finding the right wood to make the
stakes.

Simon

[1] Vampires have risen from the deas, the grave, and the crypt, but
have never managed it from the cat - Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett

-- 
http://www.callan.demon.co.uk/simon/