Re: Nice Interfaces == Traits ?

> >The Nice interface seems more like what has become known as a Trait.
>
> I'm not sure the term "trait" is well known outside of the circle of 
> language researchers (like you ;-), nor that it conveys an evident 
> meaning. So most people would have to learn what a trait is and to
> keep remembering using it instead of interface.

I agree - they'd know straight away that this is a new thing they need
to learn about, rather than the ubiquitous specification-only thing.

> On the other hand, it is not hard to explain that among the
> advantages of multi-methods (declaring new methods on existing
> classes, specializing on all arguments) there is also the ability to
> implement a method for an interface. Simple, no?

I'm not sure multimethods are well known outside of the circle of
language researchers ;-)

> I would find it awkward to change the name of interfaces just because
> of this fact, because it has nothing to do with interfaces
> themselves, it has to do with the flexibility of multi-methods.

The idee fixe is that interfaces are only declaration.

-snip- 
> Interestingly, this question is very similar to the alternative 
> structural typing/named typing...
> 
> Here, Java considers that since the two methods happens to have the
> same interface, the implementation must be for both, while in Nice
> you need to design you hierarchy to make the sharing explicit.

That's a helpful analogy. Many of the comments I make about Nice
probably have some grounding in a guess about how much we'll have to do
when making code changes - because so much more effort goes into making
code changes then into designing a hierarchy anew. 

Writing "anew" makes me wonder if "alike" should be "thistype" ;-)

best wishes, Isaac

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