[Python-ideas] "value" ~ "data" ~ "object"

[Bruce Leban]

Sorry -- Denis asked not just about Python but about English and I was
speaking in that context and it's hard to not be pedantic in that case. :-)

Even if Python defines precise meanings of 'object', 'class', 'metaclass'
most of us use other languages too which use those words differently so
there will invariably be some cross-leakage. I know a programming system
that uses the word 'model' where others use table and 'entity' where others
use row. :-)

--- Bruce
http://www.vroospeak.com


On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 12:00 PM, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:

> 2010/4/15 Bruce Leban <bruce at leapyear.org>:
> > data = plural of datum
> > both words are commonly misused as to singular/plural usage.
>
> Too pedantic.
>
> > "piece/unit/item of data" is a common substitution for "datum" by people
> who
> > don't know the word. [Likewise, "media" is the plural of "medium" but
> people
> > get that confused too.]
>
> > With numbers, a single number is a datum. More than one numbers are data.
> > You would never refer to "the value X" (where X is a python variable) but
> > you would refer to "the value 3" or "the value pi". Generally, in English
> > when people say "data" they're referring to the numbers in a more
> abstract
> > sense than 3 and pi.
>
> > I would say that roughly:
> > value : datum :: instance : object
> >
> > But this is hardly precise. People frequently refer to A as an object
> when
> > we really mean it's an instance of the object [e.g., class] Alpha.
>
> No. In Python, object always refers to an instance. "An instance of an
> object" is nonsense (unless the object happens to be a class object,
> in which case the object's class is also called a metaclass).
>
> We do use type and class interchangeably in Python. (Except in very
> old Python versions where type refers to a built-in type or a type
> defined by a built-in or extension module, and class refers to a
> user-defined class -- but in modern Python there is no longer a
> difference.)
>
> --
> --Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)
>
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