The term "Protocol"

[Bruce Eckel]

Sunday, August 1, 2004, 6:51:15 PM, Tim Peters wrote:

> Iteration is a protocol, not a type.

I know the term "protocol" has been used to describe a language
feature in a number of languages, but since we have no official
"protocol" support in Python I'm interested in what "we" mean by this
term. I'm going to guess that a protocol is like an interface in Java,
except that it doesn't have a concrete definition anywhere, but it is
implied through convention and use. Thus a protocol is a "latent
interface." Am I close? I'd like to understand this term better.

Bruce Eckel