Add more entries to the glossary.

Written by Jeff Wheeler for GHOP.
This commit is contained in:
Georg Brandl 2007-12-02 14:58:50 +00:00
parent b15a8df519
commit 584265b001
21 changed files with 166 additions and 64 deletions

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@ -15,6 +15,17 @@ Glossary
``...``
The typical Python prompt of the interactive shell when entering code for
an indented code block.
argument
A value passed to a function or method, assigned to a name local to
the body. A function or method may have both positional arguments and
keyword arguments in its definition. Positional and keyword arguments
may be variable-length: ``*`` accepts or passes (if in the function
definition or call) several positional arguments in a list, while ``**``
does the same for keyword arguments in a dictionary.
Any expression may be used within the argument list, and the evaluated
value is passed to the local variable.
BDFL
Benevolent Dictator For Life, a.k.a. `Guido van Rossum
@ -57,6 +68,22 @@ Glossary
advanced mathematical feature. If you're not aware of a need for them,
it's almost certain you can safely ignore them.
decorator
A function returning another function, usually applied as a function
transformation using the ``@wrapper`` syntax. Common examples for
decorators are :func:`classmethod` and :func:`staticmethod`.
The decorator syntax is merely syntactic sugar, the following two
function definitions are semantically equivalent::
def f(...):
...
f = staticmethod(f)
@staticmethod
def f(...):
...
descriptor
Any *new-style* object that defines the methods :meth:`__get__`,
:meth:`__set__`, or :meth:`__delete__`. When a class attribute is a
@ -94,10 +121,24 @@ Glossary
statements. The technique contrasts with the :term:`LBYL` style that is
common in many other languages such as C.
expression
A piece of syntax which can be evaluated to some value. In other words,
an expression is an accumulation of expression elements like literals, names,
attribute access, operators or function calls that all return a value.
In contrast to other languages, not all language constructs are expressions,
but there are also :term:`statement`\s that cannot be used as expressions,
such as :keyword:`print` or :keyword:`if`. Assignments are also not
expressions.
extension module
A module written in C, using Python's C API to interact with the core and
with user code.
function
A series of statements which returns some value to a caller. It can also
be passed zero or more arguments which may be used in the execution of
the body. See also :term:`argument` and :term:`method`.
__future__
A pseudo module which programmers can use to enable new language features
which are not compatible with the current interpreter. For example, the
@ -241,6 +282,17 @@ Glossary
More information can be found in :ref:`typeiter`.
keyword argument
Arguments which are preceded with a ``variable_name=`` in the call.
The variable name designates the local name in the function to which the
value is assigned. ``**`` is used to accept or pass a dictionary of
keyword arguments. See :term:`argument`.
lambda
An anonymous inline function consisting of a single :term:`expression`
which is evaluated when the function is called. The syntax to create
a lambda function is ``lambda [arguments]: expression``
LBYL
Look before you leap. This coding style explicitly tests for
pre-conditions before making calls or lookups. This style contrasts with
@ -271,6 +323,12 @@ Glossary
singletons, and many other tasks.
More information can be found in :ref:`metaclasses`.
method
A function that is defined inside a class body. If called as an attribute
of an instance of that class, the method will get the instance object as
its first :term:`argument` (which is usually called ``self``).
See :term:`function` and :term:`nested scope`.
mutable
Mutable objects can change their value but keep their :func:`id`. See
@ -305,10 +363,32 @@ Glossary
More information can be found in :ref:`newstyle`.
positional argument
The arguments assigned to local names inside a function or method,
determined by the order in which they were given in the call. ``*`` is
used to either accept multiple positional arguments (when in the
definition), or pass several arguments as a list to a function. See
:term:`argument`.
Python 3000
Nickname for the next major Python version, 3.0 (coined long ago when the
release of version 3 was something in the distant future.)
Pythonic
An idea or piece of code which closely follows the most common idioms of
the Python language, rather than implementing code using concepts common
in other languages. For example, a common idiom in Python is the :keyword:`for`
loop structure; other languages don't have this easy keyword, so people
use a numerical counter instead::
for i in range(len(food)):
print food[i]
As opposed to the cleaner, Pythonic method::
for piece in food:
print piece
reference count
The number of places where a certain object is referenced to. When the
reference count drops to zero, an object is deallocated. While reference
@ -331,6 +411,18 @@ Glossary
mapping rather than a sequence because the lookups use arbitrary
:term:`immutable` keys rather than integers.
slice
A list containing a portion of an indexed list-like object. A slice is
created using the subscript notation, ``[]`` with colons between numbers
when several are given, such as in ``variable_name[1:3:5]``. The bracket
(subscript) notation uses :class:`slice` objects internally (or in older
versions, :meth:`__getslice__` and :meth:`__setslice__`).
statement
A statement is part of a suite (a "block" of code). A statement is either
an :term:`expression` or a one of several constructs with a keyword, such
as :keyword:`if`, :keyword:`while` or :keyword:`print`.
type
The type of a Python object determines what kind of object it is; every
object has a type. An object's type is accessible as its