Sure, some things about Python bug me. But that's not what this is about. I wanted to react to Jacob Kaplan-Moss's gripes instead of promulgating my own. Specifically, his problem with Python's interfaces, or lack thereof.
I think I can keep this brief: interfaces are a hack that Java uses because Gosling et al thought multiple inheritance was too confusing and/or dangerous. (I believe I've read something recently where Gosling said that this was one decision he might do differently if he were re-designing Java now with the benefit of hindsight, but I can't find the source. Anyone remember seeing that?)
Python has MI. It doesn't need interfaces. I'm a little baffled that someone on the django core team would cite this as a problem with Python.
Jacob's precise objection is,
I shouldn’t need to care care about the difference between something that pretends to be a list and something that really is a list.
That's just it! You don't! But of course what Jacob really means is, "It should be easy to discover what methods a library expects to find on MY object that pretends to be a list." Which seems reasonable. And sure, good documentation is always welcome.
But when you cross the line to an Interface, at least the kind of Interface where Python itself would raise an error if I ignored the recommendation and left a method out (because I knew it wasn't necessary), that's bondage & discipline. That's not Python.
