Hi dave
There is a good explanation in the paper http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~scg/ Archive/Drafts/TOPLASTraits.pdf But in a nutshell with traits the composite entity has the complete control of the composition of several traits while with mixins you have the composition is more a linearisation hence the composite does not have the control which is spread over the linearisation.
Julian Fitzell wrote:
Yes. This is one of my favourite possible uses for traits. This is basically what Ruby lets you do with its Enumerable module (though it does it with mixins): http://www.rubycentral.com/book/ref_m_enumerable.html
Can anyone tell me what the difference is between mixins and traits? I'm currently building a website using Ruby-on-Rails (though I'd probably have been happier with Seaside if Squeak ran on my architecture), and mixins as implemented in Ruby seem to answer all the questions that multiple-inheritance fans ask.
Also, when *will* traits make it into the standard image?
We hope in 3.9. You should help us and kick our asses so that we allocate the ressources to make it real.
Stef
../Dave