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

R. David Murray rdmurray at bitdance.com
Mon Jun 27 22:37:21 CEST 2011

On Mon, 27 Jun 2011 20:30:12 +0100, Michael Foord <fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk> wrote:

On 27/06/2011 20:22, R. David Murray wrote: > [snip...] > So, the correct generic term for something that can be accessed > via attribute notation is attribute. The more specific term for an > attribute that is a method is method. We don't currently have a more > specific collective term for attributes that aren't methods. That > is the problem.

I think part of the problem is also that some people's usage of the term doesn't match the precise terminology. It sounds like if I say "an object's attributes" some of us will expect that to include the methods and some of us not. I'd say anecdotally that when people talk about object attributes collectively they are not including methods. When they talk about attribute lookup that rightly includes everything.

Yes, I think that it is common to use 'attributes' to mean 'non-method attributes', and often the context can make clear which usage is intended. What we should do in our own docs is a different question, but we do have other cases where "it is clear from context" is considered a valid argument for technically imprecise terminology. And I think that's reasonable.

A precise term to describe "attributes that are not methods" would still be helpful. I guess the closest we have is "non-descriptors", but that requires a knowledge of the descriptor protocol for it to be useful.

I'm not really as comfortable as I think I should be with the descriptor stuff, but aren't properties descriptors in the sense you are using it here? Yet I don't think a property should be called a method, even though it is implemented via a function(s) that looks a lot like a method. This is why talking about non-method attributes collectively is so fraught....

-- R. David Murray http://www.bitdance.com

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