Confessions of a Python fanboy

[Carl Banks]

On Jul 29, 9:04 pm, alex23 <wuwe... at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jul 30, 1:06 pm, r <rt8... at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 1.) No need to use "()" to call a function with no arguments.
> > Python --> "obj.m2().m3()" --ugly
> >   Ruby --> "obj.m1.m2.m3"  -- sweeet!
> > Man, i must admit i really like this, and your code will look so much
> > cleaner.
>
> How do you distinguish between calling a method with no arguments, and
> getting access to the method object itself (because it _is_ an object,
> y'know, it's OO all the way down...)?
>
> > 2.) the .each method
> > container.each{|localVar| block}
> > This method can really cleanup some ugly for loops, although i really
> > like the readability of for loops.
>
> map(lambda localVar: <block>, sequence)
>
> or:
>
> def usefully_named_func(var):
>     <block>
>     return var
>
> transformed = [usefully_named_func(v) for v in sequence]
>
> > 3.) true OOP
> > Now before you go and get all "huffy" over this statement, hear me
> > out. Python is the best language in the world. But it damn sure has
> > some warts! "len(this)" instead of "obj.length" max(that) instead of
> > [1,2,3,4,5].max().
>
> As the Zen says: '[P]racticality beats purity'. Personally, I'm not
> sure how a handful of convenient built-in functions make a language in
> which _everything is an object_ somehow "false" OO.
>
> If you're really that concerned with writing "true" OO (for some
> wildly variable value of "true"), there's nothing stopping you from
> doing so now:
>
>     obj.__len__()
>
> With max(), this is a built-in that takes _any_ iterable and an
> optional key function, and returns the highest value as per the key.
> This means that _every_ iterable object - as _well_ as every object
> that supports enough of the iterator protocol - can be handed to max()
> and a result obtained. So at best, I just need to make sure my new
> sequence-type provides the iterator protocol and viola, it works with
> max() without me having to hand-code a .max() that's specialised for
> my new type, and without Python forcing me to have a complex
> inheritance chain just to make sure I include the right
> MaxableSequence ancestor to inherit the right .max().
>
> > PS stay tuned for more from this series....
>
> Is this going to be more of you telling us - without any apparent
> irony whatsoever - how Ruby has some valid points after all your
> vilification last year when we said the same to you?  If so, where can
> I sign up?!
>
> (You should consider trading guest spot posts with Xah Lee on your
> respective blogs. You both have a very similar approach to programming
> & programming languages and I think the synergy would be amazing to
> see.)

Here is some wisdom from Guido van Rossum on the matter:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2006-May/064841.html


Carl Banks