Re:Overload functions in Python
by skrebbel on Monday February 17, 2020 @07:03AM
(#22347087)
> I thought a consensus had emerged that function overloading was a bad idea for a while now?
Hm, really? I didn't get the memo :-) After all, there is no semantic difference between function overloading and varying behavior based on args and kwargs.
You can trivially compile any set of overloaded functions into a single function with a bunch of if/else statements at the top level, without any change to the caller side. Basically, you need either variable arguments or function overloading to support a dynamic API. Nearly all languages support either one, many support both. Why is that a bad idea?
Languages like Elixir encourage heavy function overloading (to the point that some people replace nearly every potential if/case by a bunch of overloaded private functions), and I don't think its ecosystem is hurting for it.
Sidenote: I also really like how TypeScript does function overloading: you can only define one function implementation, but you can give it multiple overloaded typed signatures. This lets you say stuff like "if the first parameter is a string, then the second one must be a number". But you still have to implement that top-level if/else by hand, like you would in JavaScript. It's nice and pragmatic!
Hm, really? I didn't get the memo :-) After all, there is no semantic difference between function overloading and varying behavior based on args and kwargs.
You can trivially compile any set of overloaded functions into a single function with a bunch of if/else statements at the top level, without any change to the caller side. Basically, you need either variable arguments or function overloading to support a dynamic API. Nearly all languages support either one, many support both. Why is that a bad idea?
Languages like Elixir encourage heavy function overloading (to the point that some people replace nearly every potential if/case by a bunch of overloaded private functions), and I don't think its ecosystem is hurting for it.
Sidenote: I also really like how TypeScript does function overloading: you can only define one function implementation, but you can give it multiple overloaded typed signatures. This lets you say stuff like "if the first parameter is a string, then the second one must be a number". But you still have to implement that top-level if/else by hand, like you would in JavaScript. It's nice and pragmatic!