From: Alex Young <alex@...>
Date: 2007-03-29T18:27:09+09:00
Subject: Re: general question (different between methods and functions)?

David Vallner wrote:
> Alex Young wrote:
>> I think of them like this:
>>
>> - A method is a message to which an object responds.
>> [snip]
>> By this definition, it is possible for an (object,message) pair to be
>> viewed as a function.
> 
> Of course, the very existence of CLOS makes this definition a little
> vague. Since then, it would be the tuple of a "message" and all the
> objects (values really) it's "sent to" (which, in CLOS, it quite isn't,
> since IIRC, the multiple-dispatch mechanism doesn't have to use the most
> specific class of either argument if it wouldn't lead to a match), and
> things go all manners of pear-shaped, making a method really only a
> tuple of a message name and its arguments, where I can't really see the
> distinction between that and a function name and its arguments. (Based
> on your definition only.)

Absolutely agreed.  "Method" and "function" needn't be (and as you've 
shown, aren't) exclusive terms.

-- 
Alex