Why Python Terminology Can Confuse Even Experienced Devs

Key Takeaways

you can get into these weird conversations where somebody says pointer and then you're trying to say do you mean reference and and if I understand what they mean then correcting them just is a sidetrack right [laughter] um we run into this all the time right there is a distinction between constructor and an initializer >> 99.99% of the time it will not matter so if you're having a deep conversation about metaclasses and you need to get that exactly right then it's fine on the other hand if somebody calls under in it a constructor, you know what they mean, so you don't have to correct them. Some folks at Real Python are are writing an article right now and they're talking about the in concept. Does in work on is it operate on a container? And well, technically it's not a container because it's more than just containers. It's other things as well. And then you run into the fact that there isn't a single word that wraps it up. So now, you know, if we're having a casual conversation about this, >> the vocabulary can sometimes help and sometimes it can get in the way, right? >> And the beginners and the intermediate people have all left the room because they're like, "All right, I don't want to be a part of this argument." The more languages you know, the more likely you're going to be sloppier about it because your brain uses whatever term comes to you