✨ Use of var-args makes translation to other languages difficult

[axman6]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Suggestion

There seems to be some inconsistent use of varargs in a few places that make the translation to other languages more difficult than it needs to be. The example I've come across is https://github.com/microsoft/electionguard-python/blob/main/src/electionguard/ballot.py#L757 which has the lines

        contest_hashes = [contest.crypto_hash for contest in self.contests]
        return hash_elems(self.object_id, encryption_seed, *contest_hashes)

Possible Implementation

The code above could easily just be simply

        contest_hashes = [contest.crypto_hash for contest in self.contests]
        return hash_elems(self.object_id, encryption_seed, contest_hashes)

which should achieve the same outcome but make translations easier when languages don't have things like heterogeneous lists. In my Haskell implementation, hashes of multiple arguments of differerent are represented using the instances for various tuple types, so I can't generate a tuple of arbitrary size at runtime.

Anything else?

No response

[keithrfung]

This is a great distinction to make for transliteration. Let's leave this in triage but expand a bit more to denote all the lines where this is true.

[keithrfung]

@axman6 Going to move this out of triage. If you have any lines you'd like to denote here for others to grab, I think this is a great move to allow easier transliteration for others.

[subhamgcon]

Hey, I am a beginner and this is my first hacktoberfest. I am currently learning how to code properly but I really want some hands on experience and I love contributing to open source. Could you explain me what this issue all about and how can I fix it?? I want to work on it. @keithrfung

[keithrfung]

@subhamgcon No problem. I got you. I removed the good-first issue on this label but I'll give an explanation of what this would look like.

The concern is that we use var-args which is difficult to transliterate, meaning difficult to port to other languages. We could opt for a builder pattern or sending arrays to ensure this would not be necessary.

I did a quick cursory search and due to hash_elems this ripples to a good number of functions.

[subhamgcon]

@subhamgcon No problem. I got you. I removed the good-first issue on this label but I'll give an explanation of what this would look like.

The concern is that we use var-args which is difficult to transliterate, meaning difficult to port to other languages. We could opt for a builder pattern or sending arrays to ensure this would not be necessary.

I did a quick cursory search and due to hash_elems this ripples to a good number of functions.

Okay, I understood. So how could I fix this please explain?

[keithrfung]

@subhamgcon It's an issue with the variable arguments.

So python uses method(*items) so you can call the method such that method(item1, item2) or method(item1, item2, item3) works.

The solutions can be changed by creating a list or using a builder pattern.
For example:

def method(items: List[Item])
    ....

list = [item1, item2, item3]
method(list)

[subhamgcon]

@subhamgcon It's an issue with the variable arguments.

So python uses method(*items) so you can call the method such that method(item1, item2) or method(item1, item2, item3) works.

The solutions can be changed by creating a list or using a builder pattern. For example:

def method(items: List[Item])
    ....

list = [item1, item2, item3]
method(list)

Okay!! Can I work on it now?

[keithrfung]

@subhamgcon of course!