I went to a wedding here in Bangladesh the other day. It was a particularly nice wedding, not least because the food was very good. That the food is good is important, since weddings are mostly about greeting people, wishing the best for the happy couple and then eating.
Besides the rice with mutton and chicken, some meat ball were served, that my companion asked about. The conversation went something like this:
- What are these?
- Kebab
- I mean, what kind?
- Jali Kebab
- Yes, but what does it contain?
- Meat
- Yes, but what kind of meat?
- Mutton
It goes without saying, that if the waiter was initially asked whether it was mutton, the conversation would have been over much sooner. But can we not assume, that even if he was asked if it was chicken, he would immediately answer that it was mutton. He would intuitively know to give the right answer.
I find that examples are much better than definitions to explain something. Let’s consider an interface that you need to call. Yes, you need the definition to formally confirm that your implementation is completely accurate, but it’s fascinating that, although the example is maybe one way out of a million ways to use the interface, it will instantly make you understand almost everything you need to know about it!
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