I think I agree more with bob on this one - he wasn't saying functions weren't important, just that they weren't important to this case. Sure polymorphism and inheritance and properties and generators and list comprehensions are awesome and useful, but I wouldn't suggest they are necessary for every situation. Same with Functions. That's just the trap that java fell into by making everything an object... It just adds a couple of useless lines that will just serve to confuse newbies and irritate pros. IMHO.
Sent from my iPhone On Jul 31, 2010, at 10:11 PM, bob gailer <bgai...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 7/31/2010 8:24 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote: >> On Sun, 1 Aug 2010 04:35:03 am bob gailer wrote: >> >>> Continue to avoid writing functions. They are not necessary for such >>> a simple program. >>> >> That is *terrible* advice. Absolutely awful. >> > > Well I disagree. I was trying to steer the OP to get the simplest possible > program running, then do incremental expansion. > > In my understanding user defined functions serve these purposes: > 1 - modularizing large programs > 2 - factoring out common code > 3 - providing callbacks > 4 - choosing callable objects from some collection. > 5 - providing a main function for the if __name__ == "__main__" idiom > 6 - what else can we think of? > > None of these are needed in this simple case. > >> Functions should not be avoided unless necessary. Functions should be >> used unless there is a compelling reason to avoid them. >> > > Once the OP has succeeded in getting some program running he will experience > some relief and satisfaction. Then I think it is time to add language > features. But not just for the sake of using them. >> This is not 1972 any more, and we're not teaching kids to write >> spaghetti code with BASIC and GOTO. > > Functions have no relationship to avoiding spaghetti code. Python makes > spaghetti code impossible since it lacks a goto or equivalent statement. > >> Functions, or their object-oriented >> equivalent methods, are *the* single most important feature of >> programming. And they're simple too > > Well - almost simple. Until you get into issues like global vs local names, > positional vs keyword arguments, required vs optional arguments, default > values (especially mutable objects), * and **, generator functions, magic > methods, nested defs, decorators, .... > >> -- they might not be the first thing you teach an absolute newbie who has >> never programmed before > > That is what our OP appears to be. > > -- > Bob Gailer > 919-636-4239 > Chapel Hill NC > > _______________________________________________ > Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org > To unsubscribe or change subscription options: > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
