list(), tuple() should not place at "Built-in functions" in documentation

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Thu Jul 14 23:00:16 EDT 2011


On 7/14/2011 9:51 PM, Ben Finney wrote:
> Steven D'Aprano<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info>  writes:
>
>> Inside wrote:
>>
>>> As telling in the subject,because "list" and "tuple" aren't functions,they
>>> are types.Is that right?

At one time (before 2.2), they were functions and not classes.
>>
>> Yes they are types. But they can still be used as functions. Does it matter?
>
> As a newcomer to the documentation I looked fruitlessly in the table of
> contents for a section that would contain the built-in types. “Built-in
> functions” was eliminated for the reason the OP states.
>
> I think it matters. (But I haven't proposed a documentation patch for it.)

I once proposed, I believe on the tracker, that 'built-in functions' be 
expanded to 'built-in function and classes'. That was rejected on the 
basis that people would then expect the full class documentation that is 
in the 'built-in types' section (which could now be called the 
built-isssn classes section.

A more exact title would be 'built-in callables', but that would be even 
less helpful to newcomers. Callables are functions in the generic sense.

In any case, the new index makes it easy to see what is in that chapter.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy





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