9 Dec 2005 shalabh   » (Journeyer)

Humane Interfaces vs Minimal Interfaces

Martin Fowler writes how a 78 method Ruby list class is so much nicer than a minimal 25 method java.util.List. Elliotte Harold takes some of those 78, and tries to tell you why they're useless.

You cannot pluck a class from Ruby, implant it in Java (or a Java mindset) and expect to see the benifit. You have to use the language, understand the philosophy, and see how the different classes work so well together in the other language.

I don't use Ruby, I use Python. So where does Python stand in the humane-minimal scale? Somewhere between Ruby and Java, I would think. Simple is better than complex, but practicality beats purity. And yet, special cases aren't special enough to break the rules. (From the Zen of Python). Thankfully, there is Guido, maintaining the balance.

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