On Thursday, May 29, 2014 12:03:54 AM UTC+1, William wrote: > > Another issue is that frequently in math we have algorithms/options to > functions, e.g., > sage: a.det(algorithm="padic") >
And even if there is no argument I would prefer a.det() over a.det to make it clear that this is invoking a computation and not just accessing one of the defining attributes of a. This is _the_ difference between an argument-less method and a readonly @property: If you have to call() it, it is clear that there is a computation involved. Whereas a single property invites you to tab-complete your way through it a.det.is_prime, and you don't want to run a computation every time you press tab. There is an argument to be made for using @property to access the defining data of an object, but since we historically don't do it I would prefer consistency over that syntactic gadget. The benefit of not having to always type () vs. the continual uncertainty about whether you need parentheses... In Sage, there are generally a lot of methods computing stuff compared to the simple accessor methods needed, so there isn't much need for @property to start with. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
