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

Michael Foord fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk
Tue Jun 28 00:46:53 CEST 2011

On 27/06/2011 23:18, Terry Reedy wrote:

On 6/27/2011 2:33 PM, Terry Reedy wrote:

Let me repeat that that is historically wrong for Python, and illustrate why the term 'members' should not be used. From the 1.5 Language Reference, 3.2 Standard type hierarchy: "There are also some 'generic' special attributes, not listed with the individual objects: methods is a list of the method names of a built-in object, if it has any; members is a list of the data attribute names of a built-in object, if it has any." This sentence was left untouched until 2.2. What's new 2.2 has "In previous versions of Python, there was no consistent way to discover what attributes and methods were supported by an object. There were some informal conventions, such as defining members and methods attributes that were lists of names, but often the author of an extension type or a class wouldn't bother to define them." So the Python 2.2 what's new talks about attributes and methods as different things.... Of course the context makes it clear, but this mirrors how I use the terms in discussion and how I see others generally using them.

Great topic for bikeshedding. :-)

Michael

This is a section on descriptors, but the real replacement is, I believe, dir().

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