[Python-3000] Abilities / Interfaces

[Talin]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> 1. Naming and general ideas. Should we call these Abilities or
> Interfaces? Abilities, the term proposed by Andrew Koenig, have less
> baggage, but possibly they're just an isomorphic relabeling of
> interfaces. From Zope comes the important question: Do we want to
> discuss the interfaces/abilities of an instance separately from those
> provided by its class? Zope's answer is Yes, reminds Jean-Paul
> Calderone, and I tend to like this (having been exposed to it in the
> past).

In C++ template-land these are called "concepts". Thus, a vector 
embodies the 'sequential container' concept.

Other terms that one can use are: features, affordances, 
characteristics, facet, quality, etc.

Both 'ability' and 'interface' imply (to me, anyway) that the class 
being inspected is an actor, that it 'does something' rather than being 
operated on.

I kind of like 'feature', although that too has baggage. (I'm thinking 
of the word 'feature' in the sense of having some property or 
characteristic, rather than the sense of having positive benefit.)

-- Talin