[Python-Dev] [PEP 3148] futures - execute computations asynchronously

[Guido van Rossum]

On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 10:30 AM,  <exarkun at twistedmatrix.com> wrote:
> On 05:06 pm, curt at hagenlocher.org wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 8:35 AM, Jesse Noller <jnoller at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 11:21 AM, Daniel Stutzbach
>>> <daniel at stutzbachenterprises.com> wrote:
>>> > On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 12:03 AM, Brian Quinlan <brian at sweetapp.com>
>>> > wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> import futures
>>> >
>>> > +1 on the idea, -1 on the name.  It's too similar to "from __future__
>>> > import
>>> > ...".
>>>
>>> Futures is a common term for this, and implemented named this in other
>>> languages. I don't think we should be adopting things that are common,
>>> and found elsewhere and then renaming them.
>>
>> Another common term for this is a "promise".
>
> Promises aren't exactly the same.  This would be a particularly bad name to
> apply here.

Please explain. Even the Wikipedia article
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futures_and_promises), despite promising
to explain the difference, didn't explain it.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)