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

Michael Foord fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk
Tue Jun 28 14:56:40 CEST 2011

On 28/06/2011 13:31, Nick Coghlan wrote:

On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 8:54 PM, Michael Foord <fuzzyman at voidspace.org.uk> wrote:

The problem with "data attributes" is that it doesn't mean anything, which I suppose is useful for invented terminology, but it means it doesn't convey anything precise to those who haven't heard the term before. If it becomes widely used then that changes I guess. I'd still normally just use "attributes" though... In this context, precision is an illusion. There is no precise terminology, "instance members" is precise, (whether or not an attribute is fetched "from the instance" is one thing that is clear in the python data model

However, providing "getattr" and "getattribute" is not the common case and even properties are usually backed by a real instance attribute. So "instance attributes" as opposed to other types of attributes is often a useful distinction.

I don't think "data attributes" is clear or precise. Is a property a data attribute (well it depends how it is implemented and what it does), is a staticmethod a data attribute (no - but then Tres' question - it isn't a normal method either so if you define data attribute to mean "all non method attributes" then its potentially an open question).

All the best,

Michael Foord

not only because Python blurs the boundaries by design in many respects (callable or not, method or not, attribute or not, etc), but also because people use the same words to mean slightly different things.

The best we can hope for is to encourage the right way of thinking about the situation, and in that regard you have the complete set of attributes accessible via an object (i.e. via getattribute), some of which are callables (and may or may not act like instance methods) and the remainder of which are data attributes (some of which may incidentally be callable, even if they aren't used that way). How a particular attribute is classified is not an inherent property of the attribute, but also an artifact of the way it is used by the application. Cheers, Nick.

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