[Python-Dev] Things to Know About Super (original) (raw)

Steve Holden steve at holdenweb.com
Tue Aug 26 23:10:10 CEST 2008

Michele Simionato wrote:

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 5:32 PM, Raymond Hettinger <python at rcn.com> wrote: [...]

I think it is a non-sequiter to reason from "diamond diagrams are complicated" to "mixins should be disallowed". Instead, I think it better to simply recommend that a key to happiness is to keep various mixin classes completely orthogonal to one another (no overlapping method names). I not completely against multiple inheritance. I am against multiple inheritance as it is now. A restricted form of multiple inheritance in which mixins classes are guaranteed to be orthogonal would be fine with me (provided it is not abused). This concept exists already in other languages, the orthogonal mixins are called "traits". If you aren't aware of it you should take a look at Enthought's traits package. It's part of the Enthought Tool Suite (ETS).

https://svn.enthought.com/enthought/wiki

While I too appreciate your comments about super I believe you have perhaps overdone it. I do look forward to seeing the edited edition as a part of the documentation. [Hint: the docs aren't in feature freeze ;-)]

regards Steve

Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/

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