Re: unified methods

[Roberto Ierusalimschy <rieru@...>]

On Thu, 29 Nov 2001, John Belmonte wrote:

> Actually unified methods doesn't offer many features at all.  It's just
> taking Lua's internal tag method system an exposing it as tables (this is
> why Edgar was shocked by your comment about everything-as-tables).  Lua's
> tag method interface is spotty and hard to follow, so unified methods just
> make you think you're getting a whole lot more.  It's an illusion.

I think it is important to separate unified methods in two quite
independent parts: the first part is keeping tag methods in a table (what
you call "exposing it as tables"); but there is a the second part: to look
into this table for "methods" when you use the syntax a:foo().

(The first part is actually simpler than the current tag system, and we are
considering adopting it in the next version of Lua. It is very easy to
implement the current system using the new one; and we will do it, to keep
compatibility).

-- Roberto