[docs] [issue23210] clarify "virtual sequence" and range docs

Ethan Furman report at bugs.python.org
Fri Jan 9 18:58:51 CET 2015


Ethan Furman added the comment:

On 01/09/2015 09:39 AM, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> Please don't add this to the glossary and don't start using "virtual" (it is
> my favorite example of terminology gone wrong in C++ as well as in colloquial
> language). The terminology "virtual sequence" is only used once, and probably
> a holdover from the Python 2 times when the idea was to describe the difference
> between xrange and range. Just drop the word "virtual" please!

I think the word has an important implication (low memory usage) and keeping it (and adding it to the range docs) would be useful to somebody who was searching for such a thing and unfamiliar with how range was constructed... on the other hand, generators are very similar (although not full Sequences) and we don't use the word virtual with them...

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