[Python-ideas] RFC: PEP: Add dict.__version__

[Nick Coghlan]

On 9 January 2016 at 18:55, Serhiy Storchaka <storchaka at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 09.01.16 09:57, Victor Stinner wrote:
>>
>> Le samedi 9 janvier 2016, Serhiy Storchaka
>>     This may be not the best name for a property. Many modules already
>>     have the __version__ attribute, this may make a confusion.
>>
>> It's fine to have a __version__ property and a __version__ key in the
>> same dict. They are different.
>
> Oh, I meant not a confusion between a property and a key, but between
> properties of two related objects. Perhaps one time we'll want to add the
> property with the same meaning directly to module object, but it is already
> in use.

The confusion I was referring to was yet a third variant of possible
confusion: when people read "version", they're inevitably going to
think "module version" or "package version" (since dealing with those
kinds of versions is a day to day programming activity, regardless of
domain), not "cache validity token" (as "version" in that sense is a
technical term of art most programmers won't have encountered before).

Yes, technically, "version" and "cache validity token" refer to the
same thing in the context of data versioning, but the latter
emphasises what the additional piece of information is primarily *for*
in practical terms (checking if your caches are still valid), rather
than what it *is* in formal terms (the current version of the stored
data).

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia