Definite or indefinite article for non-singletons?

[Mirko]

Am 27.07.2019 um 23:10 schrieb Chris Angelico:
> When talking about indistinguishable objects, is it correct to talk
> about "the <x>" or "an <x>"?
> 
> Example:
> 
> def f(s):
>     """Frob a thing.
> 
>     If s is an empty string, frobs all the things.
>     OR
>     If s is the empty string, frobs all the things.
>     """
> 
> It's entirely possible that a Python implementation will optimize
> small strings and thus have exactly one empty string, but it's also
> entirely possible to have multiple indistinguishable empty strings.
> Grammatically, is it better to think of empty strings as an entire
> category of object, and you were passed one from that category ("an
> empty string"), or to think of zero-length instances of 'str' as being
> implementation details referring to the one and only Platonic "empty
> string"?
> 
> Does it make a difference to usage if the object is mutable? For
> instance, would you say "the empty string" but "an empty set"?
> 
> ChrisA
> 


Quite frankly, even as a professional (german) writer and texter
(but hobby-programmer), I consider this question to be an
exaggeration about a very minor grammatical aspect. Yes, it makes a
difference if you are allowed to eat *an* apple or *this* apple
(*this* apple might be mine). But, I hobby-program since 20 years or
so, but I can not remember a situation, where a documentation that
confused "an" with "this" caused any troubles.

Anyway:


Python 3.6.7 (default, Oct 22 2018, 11:32:17)
[GCC 8.2.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> x=""
>>> y=""
>>> x is y
True


Jython 2.5.3 (, Sep 21 2017, 03:12:48)
[OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (Oracle Corporation)] on java1.7.0_131
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> x=""
>>> y=""
>>> x is y
False


So, obviously there are multiple empty strings possible, so I'd
write "an".

HTH