Can I bring a part of this discussion a bit closer to Python? I stipulate that quite a few languages, including fairly early ones, treated text often as numbers. Ultimately, much of programming is about taking in text and often segregating parts into various buckets either explicitly or by checking if it has a decimal point or looks like scientific notation or in how it seems to be used.
Is there any concept in Python of storing information in some way, such as text, and implementing various ideas or interfaces so that you can query if the contents are willing and able to be viewed in one of many other ways? As an example, an object may store a fairly large number as a text string in decimal format. The number is big enough that it cannot be fully represented in an 8 bit storage as in a byte or in a signed or unsigned 16-bit integer but can be stored in something larger. It may be possible to store it in a double precision floating point but not smaller. Yes, I know Python by default uses indefinite length integers, but you get the idea. Or it may be storing text in some format but the object is willing to transform the text into one of several other formats when needed. The text may also have attributes such as whether it is in English or Hungarian or is mixed-language. So for some applications, perhaps leaving the object as a string all the time may be reasonable. If some operation wishes to use the contents, the interface can be queried to see what other formats it can be coerced into and perhaps a specified set of methods need to be included that perform your transition for you such as object.return_as_int64() This can have wider implications. Imagine an object holding text in French that has been tested by humans using a program like Google Translate and deemed reasonable for translating into a specific dozen languages such as Esperanto and not certified into others like Klingon or High Valyrian or ASL. The object could contain interfaces for the languages it supports but does not store the translations, especially when the content is dynamic, such as a form letter that has been instantiated with a name and address and perhaps a part detailing what is being billed or shipped. Instead, the object can present an interface that lets a user determine if it supports dynamic translation to one or more target, such as the Quebec version of French or a British versus American version of English. I am being quite general here and lots of programs out there already probably have their own way of providing such facilities on a case-by-case basis. But do some languages have some support within the language itself? I do note some languages allow objects to oddly belong to multiple classes at once and have used that feature as a way to check if an object has some capabilities. Some languages have concepts like a mix-in and Python does allow thing like multiple inheritance albeit it often is best not to use it much. It does have ideas about how to test if a class implements some things by seeing if various dunder methods are in place. My reason for asking, is based on the discussion. If I want to use plus with an integer and a string, it may be reasonable for the interpreter to ask one or the other operand if they are able to be seen another way. If an integer indicates it can be seen as text, great. If a string indicates it believes it can deliver a number, great. Unfortunately, if they BOTH are flexible, how do you decide whether to add them as numbers or concatenate them as strings? Sigh! -----Original Message----- From: Python-list <python-list-bounces+avi.e.gross=gmail....@python.org> On Behalf Of Chris Angelico Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2023 3:35 PM To: python-list@python.org Subject: Re: Weak Type Ability for Python On Fri, 14 Apr 2023 at 03:29, Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfr...@ix.netcom.com> wrote: > > On Thu, 13 Apr 2023 12:21:58 +1000, Cameron Simpson <c...@cskk.id.au> > declaimed the following: > > >On 12Apr2023 22:12, avi.e.gr...@gmail.com <avi.e.gr...@gmail.com> wrote: > >>I suspect the OP is thinking of languages like PERL or JAVA which guess > >>for > >>you and make such conversions when it seems to make sense. > > > >JavaScript guesses. What a nightmare. Java acts like Python and will > >forbid it on type grounds (at compile time with Java, being staticly > >typed). > > > > REXX -- where everything is considered a string until it needs to be > something else. > > REXX-ooRexx_5.0.0(MT)_64-bit 6.05 23 Dec 2022 > rexxtry.rex lets you interactively try REXX statements. > Each string is executed when you hit Enter. > Enter 'call tell' for a description of the features. > Go on - try a few... Enter 'exit' to end. > x = 1; > ........................................... rexxtry.rex on WindowsNT > y = "a"; > ........................................... rexxtry.rex on WindowsNT > say x||y; > 1a > ........................................... rexxtry.rex on WindowsNT REXX - where everything is a string, arithmetic can be done on strings, and data structures are done in the variable name instead of the value. I've seen quite a few strings-only languages, but I can't think of any other language than REXX where you create arrays and dictionaries by using computed variable names. It was quite the experience back in the day (as OS/2's native scripting language), and one that I'm truly glad to have had, as it taught me so much about the differences between languages. (It also taught me to treasure good documentation and value it as truly precious, because SysSetObjectData was an incredibly powerful function whose docs just referred to WinSetObjectData, and the window manager's docs weren't part of what I had available.) ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
