From: Chad Perrin <perrin@...>
Date: 2006-07-25T07:44:40+09:00
Subject: Re: I'll have the duck!

On Tue, Jul 25, 2006 at 06:01:45AM +0900, dblack@wobblini.net wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Jul 2006, Chad Perrin wrote:
> >
> >The term "duck typing" predates Ruby, as I recall.  I seem to remember
> >it being applied to Objective-C, for instance.
> >
> >. . . not that anyone outside of NeXT used Objective-C for most of its
> >existence.
> 
> I've always thought that Dave Thomas coined it, and that it then
> caught on (including outside of Ruby).  Either way -- I think that
> using "duck" in method and class names dilutes the meaning of "duck
> typing", and also does a disservice to the stuff people are writing,
> some of which may be quite interesting.  When I see these
> prototype-style libraries named "duck" this and that, I'm just aware
> of the fact that duck typing isn't something one can implement in
> code, and that therefore the point of this code is being obscured
> rather than revealed by the naming.

You may well be right.  I'm afraid I'm not an expert in the etymology of
the term "duck typing".  I'll take your word for it, for the time being.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
print substr("Just another Perl hacker", 0, -2);