On Tue, Feb 17, 2004 at 11:39:07AM -0500, Dan Sugalski wrote: : At 8:30 AM -0800 2/17/04, Larry Wall wrote: : >So perhaps we need a different word than "does" to indicate that : >you want to include the Dog interface without including the Dog : >implementation. Perhaps we can do that with "is like(Dog)" or some : >such if we don't want to Huffman code it shorter. Then people who : >believe only in Interfaces can use the same underlying system-defined : >Roles without compromising their Java-bedeviled value system. :-) : : You could, I suppose, use "implements" to note that a class provides : the role all by itself, and "imports" to note that it brings in the : role from an external source.
I think you are using the word "role" to mean "implementation". I prefer to use "role" to mean both interface and implemention.
Well, I usually use role to mean the interface, but that's a separate issue. (Implementation is, after all, just a matter of implementation)
I think it may be wise to separate the implementation and the interface -- If I had to guess I'd say the declaration of interface conformation is going to be a lot more common, at least in class declarations.
Roles'll get thrown on individual variables and values, sure, but when I'm writing a class (Yes, I know, but lets suspend disbelief for a moment :) I'm not generally going to put a pre-existing role on a class--I'll just inherit from the darned thing. Roles, when working with whole classes, will be more a declaration of interface than an importation of implementation. (That, I suppose, argues for two separate sets of syntax, one for runtime role aquisition and another for class definition, but I think I won't go there)
Either way I don't care what the keywords are, I just think that there ought to be two, and it should be clear that interface and implementation are different. Besides, *someone* will want to throw a role on an object but use an alternate implementation. Think I won't go there either, though.
--
Dan
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