Not found in the documentation

[elas tica]

Le mercredi 28 avril 2021 à 17:36:32 UTC+2, Chris Angelico a écrit :

> > if a string or a range object is a container or not. For instance, 
> > can we say that range(100) contains 42 ?
> Not by that definition of container. 

Which definition? ;)



> some objects have references to other objects, and the high level 
> concept that some objects support the "in" operator for containment 
> checks. They are similar, in that many objects use "in" to check the 
> exact same set that they refer to, but they are not the same (for 
> instance, range(1, 10, 1000000) requires a reference to the "one 
> million" integer, even though it is not actually part of the range).

The problem with range is different because we all know that a range object 
doesn't hold (= contain) the int's (except the endpoints and the step) 
we can iterate on, instead a range object computes on the fly the int's it holds. 
On the contrary, the string "2021" holds the digits, even "2021"*10**6 does.


But this discussion is undecidable since the Python Language Reference 
doesn't provide a decent definition of a container.



> What are you actually trying to prove here? What 
> problem are you solving? Or is this just nitpicking for the sake of 
> it? 

I was only looking for basic definitions, unfortunately the official docs are not able to provide :

- what is the str value of an int? (we have to wait until Python 3.8.6 docs to get the response)
- what is a container ? what does mean "contains references" ? is a string a container or not and where the docs explains the answer?
- what is exactly a token? are "is not" or "not in " tokens?


> the language definition. CPython, for instance, is in process of 
> completely rewriting its parser, 


and what about rewriting and *redesigning* the docs? Is there even a discussion about this? Nobody complains?