David Abrahams wrote: > "Ed Brey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >> Eric Friedman wrote: >>> >>>> The area would be helped by renaming extract to access. >>> I tend to agree the name is confusing. So shall we call it >>> boost::access<>? Input? >> >> Dave A.'s comment that access is confusing because it is a noun and a >> verb is well taken. Of course, the same can be said for >> extract. ;-) > > But not as plausibly, IMO.
Agreed. My comment about extract also being a noun was a joke. Technicalities aside, it is not subject to part of speech confusion the way access is. Semantic confusion still seems like a problem, however. > Incidentally, no Boost.Python user has reported confusion about > extract, and they tend to be slightly more naive than the average > Boost user. Unfortunately, that data point is of limited use, since Python has a lot of names leaving something to be desired (generally those borrowed from C and Unix). When I was a Python newby, insetad of complaining, I just got used to looking up functions in the docs to be sure I knew what they did. >> I agree the issues goes beyond member vs. free. By the way, what is >> the motivation for using free over a member function? > > For one thing, the lovely template keyword: > > var.template extract<T>(); > ^^^^^^^^^ Let me make sure I undestand the context here: the template keyword is used iff var is a template parameter, right? That seems like a minor use case to me. It doesn't make sense to give up the strong OO correlation that a member function provides just because of a keyword in a minor use case. This is especially true considering that a free function could be provided in addition for the template case. I know the "strong OO correlation" phrase can launch into the debate over whether member functions really make for better OO, which I don't want to go into. I'm just looking at existing practice with the standard library container classes. If you want to get a piece of the contents of those containers, you use a member function. _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe & other changes: http://lists.boost.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/boost
