[Python-Dev] Namespaces

Aahz aahz@pythoncraft.com
Fri, 5 Apr 2002 23:39:48 -0500


On Fri, Apr 05, 2002, Barry A. Warsaw wrote:
>
>     A> If so, what's the generic term for all possible things that can
>     A> be bound *from*?  (They bind to objects, of course.)
> 
> I'd say that a binding operation is that which binds an object to a
> name in a particular namespace.  But I'd want to prefix the term
> "namespace" with an adjective to be precise.  An object's attribute
> namespace, a module's namespace, etc.

So we have 

* primary names (gotten from the lang ref), which are names in the
local/global/builtin namespace

* object names (and a module is an object ;-) AKA attributes

* computed bindings (getitem/setitem)

What do we call all three of these collectively?  I'd say that I agree
with MvL that computed bindings are not in fact names, and as I said in
my other post, using "binding" as the collective noun looks ugly when
we're also using it as a verb.  The key is to come up with some good way
of saying

    When rebinding a <foo> ...
-- 
Aahz (aahz@pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

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