On Jul 13, 4:53 pm, Robert Dailey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Good replies. > > I'm in the process of learning Python. I'm a native C++ programmer, so > you can see how the question relates. There's a lot of cool things C++ > allowed you to do with type-checking, such as function overloading.
This is an area of hot debate in Python and things are changing. You may want to have a look at http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3119 about interfaces, and to http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3124 about overloading and generic functions. Both PEPs are for Python 3000, but their existence should be an indication that people are not happy with the current situation in Python. You can something better than overloading already, with P.J. Eby modules simplegeneric and/or RuleDispatch, but I would say that they are not commonly used. So the right thing to do for now is to follow the good advices you received, but keep in mind that there will be alternatives in the near future (such as interface checking/function overload). Michele Simionato -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
