From: Tim Hunter <cyclists@...>
Date: 2004-10-23T08:24:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Too many default argument values!

GGarramuno wrote:
> 
> However, where this approach is of not much use is on some method
> invocation that requires a long list of optional parameters.  Creating
> a new object and filling its data just for calling an instance's
> method still feels too much C like and awkward.
> That's still one thing where named parameters built into the language
> seem like a good idea and one thing that I do miss from python.

I actually used a very similar approach in RMagick, where many of the
methods have a very long list of optional parameters.

I had just about decided to split the `rect' method into two methods, one
for square-cornered rectangles and one for round-cornered rectangles, but
then I saw that I was going to have to do something with _this_ monster, a
sibling method to `rect':

def text(text, x, y, dx, dy, rotate, styles)
        # blah, blah blah
end

Here the last 6 arguments are optional! Since I want to use a consistent
style among all these methods, I need to choose a solution for `text' and
use it for `rect' as well. The simplest thing to do would be to (as other
people have suggested) put the optional arguments in with the `style' hash,
but I'm reluctant to mix both style and non-style arguments like that. 

Back to the drawing board. I'm going to review all the suggestions in this
thread for illumination and advice.