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
>
>