On 2019-07-29 03:59, Cameron Simpson wrote:
On 29Jul2019 10:15, Chris Angelico <ros...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Jul 29, 2019 at 10:06 AM Richard Damon <rich...@damon-family.org> wrote:
When talking of empty strings, we need to look a bit at context. "The
empty string" implies that there is only one of them, and if we are
talking about values, then there is only one empty string values, so
"The empty string value" would be correct (and the term value might be
implied by context). If we are talking about object, like with the
python word "is", then the empty string is not promised to be a
singleton, so grammatically, it should be "A empty string object", and
again the term object might be implied by the context.
So I guess the original question can be reworded as:
When you're describing indistinguishable objects, are you really
talking about objects, or are you talking about values?
With numbers, it's pretty obvious that you talk about values. You can
logically say "if the spamminess is zero, blah blah blah" even though
you'd actually say "if spam == 0:" in the code. With strings, is it
therefore logical to say "is the empty string" even though you'd
actually be comparing to see if it "==" another empty string?
I wouldn't be saying "the empty string". I'd being describing the
string: "if the string is empty", "if s is an empty string", etc. So
values again.
I think the wish to use the phrasing "the empty string" either comes
from an implied metaphorthat assumes deduped immutable objects or from a
mathematical background where eg in set theory one talks about "the
empty set". Someone else posted a better description of the methematical
context, where "the empty set" is effectively naming a category of sets
(those of size 0) and considering that a single thing in that context.
I'm for running with "values" in the example you started with. I think
the "the empty string" is mathematical context specific terminology
leaking into the wrong domain.
There's also the use of the definite article when referring to the
members of a class as whole, e.g. "the elephant is a large mammal".
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