[Python-Dev] Issue10403 - using 'attributes' instead of members in documentation

[Michael Foord]

On 27/06/2011 09:24, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
> Le Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:32:32 +1000,
> Nick Coghlan<ncoghlan at gmail.com>  a écrit :
>
>> On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 7:52 AM, Terry Reedy<tjreedy at udel.edu>  wrote:
>>>> or the 'attribute' substitution everywhere makes sense?
>>> No.
>>>
>>> My strong history-based opinions ;-).
>> +1 to what Terry said.
>>
>> "Members" is a historical relic that is best replaced by "attributes"
>> or "data attributes" if we want to explicitly exclude methods for some
>> reason. "Methods" is a subset of attributes that explicitly excludes
>> data attributes.
> While I know it is technically right, I find it a bit strange to refer to
> methods as "attributes". We're describing an API, not the inner working of
> the object model. Also, people just discovering Python will probably be a
> bit surprised if we start refer to methods as "attributes".
>
> FWIW, I tend to understand "members" as "methods + attributes", which makes
> it a nice term to use for that purpose.

That is my understanding / use of the terms as well.

Michael

> Regards
>
> Antoine.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Python-Dev mailing list
> Python-Dev at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-dev
> Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-dev/fuzzyman%40voidspace.org.uk


-- 
http://www.voidspace.org.uk/

May you do good and not evil
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.
-- the sqlite blessing http://www.sqlite.org/different.html