Improve documentation around func and method (nim-lang#19207)

* Improve documentation around func and method * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: Danil Yarantsev <[email protected]> * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: Danil Yarantsev <[email protected]> * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: konsumlamm <[email protected]> * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: konsumlamm <[email protected]> * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: konsumlamm <[email protected]> * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: konsumlamm <[email protected]> * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: konsumlamm <[email protected]> * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: konsumlamm <[email protected]> * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: Zoom <[email protected]> * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: Zoom <[email protected]> * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: Zoom <[email protected]> * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: Zoom <[email protected]> * Rewrite of Zooms suggestion * Update doc/tut1.rst Co-authored-by: konsumlamm <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Danil Yarantsev <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: konsumlamm <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Zoom <[email protected]>
PMunch · Mar 28, 2022 · 43d1eaa · 43d1eaa
1 parent 2833d68
commit 43d1eaa
Showing 1 changed file with 29 additions and 2 deletions.
diff --git a/doc/tut1.rst b/doc/tut1.rst
@@ -595,8 +595,10 @@ Procedures
 
 To define new commands like `echo <system.html#echo,varargs[typed,]>`_
 and `readLine <io.html#readLine,File>`_ in the examples, the concept of a
-*procedure* is needed. (Some languages call them *methods* or *functions*.)
-In Nim new procedures are defined with the `proc` keyword:
+*procedure* is needed. You might be used to them being called *methods* or
+*functions* in other languages, but Nim
+`differentiates these concepts <tut1.html#procedures-funcs-and-methods>`_. In
+Nim, new procedures are defined with the `proc` keyword:
 
 .. code-block:: nim
     :test: "nim c $1"
@@ -874,6 +876,31 @@ The example also shows that a proc's body can consist of a single expression
 whose value is then returned implicitly.
 
 
+Funcs and methods
+-----------------
+
+As mentioned in the introduction, Nim differentiates between procedures,
+functions, and methods, defined by the `proc`, `func`, and `method` keywords
+respectively. In some ways, Nim is a bit more pedantic in its definitions than
+other languages.
+
+Functions are closer to the concept of a pure mathematical
+function, which might be familiar to you if you've ever done functional
+programming. Essentially they are procedures with additional limitations set on
+them: they can't access global state (except `const`) and can't produce
+side-effects. The `func` keyword is basically an alias for `proc` tagged
+with `{.noSideEffects.}`. Functions can still change their mutable arguments
+however, which are those marked as `var`, along with any `ref` objects.
+
+Unlike procedures, methods are dynamically dispatched. This sounds a bit
+complicated, but it is a concept closely related to inheritance and object oriented
+programming. If you overload a procedure (two procedures with the same name but
+of different types or with different sets of arguments are said to be overloaded), the procedure to use is determined
+at compile-time. Methods, on the other hand, depend on objects that inherit from
+the `RootObj`. This is something that is covered in much greater depth in
+the `second part of the tutorial<tut2.html#object-oriented-programming-dynamic-dispatch>`_.
+
+
 Iterators
 =========