Re: Is Class Synonymous with Type?

"Jon Skeet [C# MVP]" <skeet@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:MPG.1fe137a3d076358c98d6bc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mark Wilden <mwilden@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
And that's fine - but within a C# context, when talking about the type
system, it makes to only use C# terms for their C# meaning.

I agree - if to do otherwise would be confusing. I didn't find that
definition confusing (and I'm sure you didn't either).

No, but then I'm not the target audience, as I already understand the
type system. We'd have to ask the OP whether it helped or not - and
even the OP may not know, as he may think he understands when he
doesn't, or vice versa.

You know, I see a lot remarks like this that assume the real problem with a
concept or explanation is not that it's confusing to the speaker, or even to
anyone else in the conversation, but that it's bad because it just might
confuse some hypothetical idiot. This same line of thinking is used to
deprecate features like multiple inheritance. It's not that -we- would have
any problem using it - no, sir - but we feel for the poor newbies who will
screw it up.

I'm don't see how that applies. We're not talking about defining
"interface"
any more than this sentence is talking about defining "defining." We're
using an implied (and obvious, IMO) meaning of "interface" to define a C#
concept.

It wasn't implied - it was stated:

<quote>
In a nutshell a general interface is a particular set of signatures.
</quote>

You're right - my mistake.

Now that would be fine in itself, but then when someone starts learning
about C# interfaces, how do they talk about the difference between
classes and interfaces, if they've learned about classes in terms of
interfaces meaning something different?

I think the term "interface" has a much broader meaning that every
programmer must understand.

Overloading terms just seems like a bad idea to me.

It may be bad in one instance or another, but it can't be bad in general,
since our whole language is based on it.

but when there are alternatives, I think it's a good idea to use them.

The thing is that, unless you're an Eiffel programmer, you'll generally hear
"interface" (the non-C# usage, which is many years older than the C# usage)
defined in terms of "contract." "Contract" is way more overloaded than
"interface"!

For example, suppose Jeff had used the word "contract" instead of
"interface" when talking about "general interfaces". He could have
specified what he meant by "contract" just as easily as he did "general
interface" and it wouldn't have interfered with the C# meaning of the
word "interface" at all.

However, I admit that I don't think that would be a bad idea.

Again, I think it would be bad if that usage lead to confusion, but
it doesn't seem to.

I don't think we can know that.

Yes, we can know whether or not there -seems- to have been confusion. There
doesn't. That doesn't mean none exists, but there's no evidence that it
does.


.

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