[Python-Dev] Issue10403 - using 'attributes' instead of members in documentation (original) (raw)

Fred Drake fdrake at acm.org
Mon Jun 27 19:02:22 CEST 2011

Egads.

Back when I wrote

"Members and methods" should just be "attributes".

I used quotes to specifically indicate that this applied to the phrase "members and methods", not their separate use. I guess I wasn't obvious enough.

The general & Python-historical uses of "members" is unfortunate.

My current position on this is that we should avoid the use of "members", because either use will confuse a large set of readers.

As Nick points out, these are all attributes, regardless of their implementation or type of the value. "Methods" is a convenient and widely understood term to refer to a general class of attributes, when that actually matches the meaning.

For non-method or not-necessarily-a-method attributes, I'm inclined to just stick with calling them attributes at this point.

Even more important, we need to decide what to call them, and add appropriate words to the glossary. And then make the documentation match that.

-Fred

-- Fred L. Drake, Jr.    "Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities."    --Frank Lloyd Wright

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