It's me wrote (top posting as usual, but we won't make a big song and
dance about that[1] :-):
Steve,
You are correct that I worry too much about types. It's *really* hard not
to - having so many years of C in my head (and I am not exactly a
programmer).
I realize that "if you don't understand duck typing, you don't really
understand Python" - and that's why I am struggling to learn about this.
Well the basic idea is "treat what you've been passed as though it is
the type you wanted". When it's only you writing the code that's likely
going to be the case. When it's others, you have to be a little more
careful to catch the exceptions (except when you don;t bother, in which
case the users will have to understand the tracebacks).
It's hard to writing a routine and not thinking what kind of parameters will
be passed down from above. In the old days, we go out of the way to do that
so programs don't fail in mysterous ways.
Don't worry. Soon you will understand the Way of Python, and all will
become clear :-)
probably-won't-stop-you-top-posting-though-ly y'rs - steve
[1] OK, so I lied.
--
Steve Holden http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming http://pydish.holdenweb.com/
Holden Web LLC +1 703 861 4237 +1 800 494 3119
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