How do you refer to an iterator in docs?

[Roy Smith]

In article <4f921a2d$0$29965$c3e8da3$5496439d at news.astraweb.com>,
 Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:41:25 -0400, Roy Smith wrote:
> 
> > In article <4f910c3d$0$29965$c3e8da3$5496439d at news.astraweb.com>,
> >  Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> > 
> >> I refer you to your subject line:
> >> 
> >> "How do you refer to an iterator in docs?"
> >> 
> >> In documentation, I refer to an iterator as an iterator, just as I
> >> would refer to a list as a list, a dict as a dict, or a string as a
> >> string.
> > 
> > Except that "list of foos" and "sequence of foos" make sense from a
> > grammar standpoint, but "iterator of foos" does not.  Or maybe it does?
> 
> Why wouldn't it make sense?

Because an iterator isn't a container.  I don't know, maybe it does make 
sense, but my first impression is that it sounds wrong.

A basket of apples is a basket which contains apples, in the same way a 
list contains foos.  But an iterator doesn't contain anything.  You 
wouldn't say, "a spigot of water", because the spigot isn't a container 
holding the water.  It is simply a mechanism for delivering the water in 
a controlled way.