Numbering Peano Assuming Contexts & Meanings

miser> astraendo> A040601i> 2007-11-11 -11:26 -0800

Bill discusses the contrasting Num.java examples and what he sees in them.  (All times in these notes are Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), gmt-0700.)

The First Num.java (anderbill):

package com.orcmid.cs.pa;

public interface Num
{

    public int next();

    public int pred();

    public boolean is0();
}

The Second Num.java (orcmid):

// package com.orcmid.llc.pa.pn;

public interface Num
{

    public Num next();

    public Num pred();

    public boolean isOrigin();
}

2004-05-23-10:58 Further E-Mail Comment (anderbill):

Bill comments on the remarks Dennis made in moving from the first to the second Num.java examples.

> 1. We have moved from comments to e-mail. That is interesting.

I didn't see an easy way of keeping the code separate and easily manipulated. I also thought a move to a wiki would be better, but wanted to wait for the compilable interface first.

> 2. Although my note was intentionally crude, I see that our automatic 
> induction of meaning has already led to something interesting. I had not 
> omitted the result type of pred() and next(), although I can see how that 
> could be seen as a mistake by me.
> 
> 3. Here is an update based on your version.

I thought about saying public Num next(); but my choice of int reflects my own imperfect understanding of Java, and maybe OOP. 

> 3.1 It is interesting to wonder whether there is some advantage in 
> changing the names of pred() and next() to something else, although that 
> has only a temporary advantage.

Agile methods would counsel to use full words like "successor" and "predecessor". 

> 3.2 Likewise, I am not happy about isOrigin versus is0, although changing 
> the name is useful. I am not certain about "origin" is all.

Yeah, this is very interesting. I thought I had a clue about what is0() was about. isOrigin() seems confusing to me in that it makes me think this is more complicated than I had thought.

This is a very interesting example of assumed contexts and meanings.

To Be Continued ...

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created 2004-06-03-22:23 -0700 (pdt) by orcmid $$Author: Orcmid $ $$Date: 07-11-11 11:27 $ $$Revision: 21 $