What the Pythons docs means by "container" ?

[Terry Reedy]

On 2/17/2015 4:21 PM, candide wrote:
> Official Python documentation very frequently invokes a mysterious *container* data structure. The PLR manual explains :

I use 'collection' rather than 'container'.

> --------------------------
> Some objects contain references to other objects; these are called containers.
> --------------------------

A mathematical set has 'members', like a club.  Objects, like people, 
can be members of 0 to many clubs.  Containing 'references',  and the 
nature of said references is a computer implementation issue.  There are 
no 'references' in math.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy