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

[Antoine Pitrou]

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.

Regards

Antoine.