Re: OK, but what do 'attributes' look like?
Re: OK, but what do 'attributes' look like?
- Subject: Re: OK, but what do 'attributes' look like?
- From: Denis Stanton <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 09:48:02 +1300
On Wednesday, March 10, 2004, at 01:47 AM, Gregory Weston wrote:
Nit:
That's a bit personal! I admit to limited knowledge but that doesn't
necessarily imply a limited intellect.
You're not trying to communicate with the compiler here. You're trying
to communicate with the class library.
I did wonder if I was being too loose in terminology there. I'm not
necessarily aware of what I am communicating with. I write things and
"the computer" responds. There are only two of us in conversation, me
and the computer in front of me. The exact name given to the software
object that generates the response is not important, although I suppose
more understanding would lead to fewer errors.
Clarification: The library will, as seems sensible, only recognize the
things it recognizes. But you can put anything you want in there as
long as it doesn't look like something the library recognizes without
acting like it.
My problem was the documentation was very happy to say "you can write
anything you like", but very reluctant to give a list of things it
would recognize.
For clarification and future reference: Recall that the attributes are
passed as a dictionary. A dictionary is a data structure that consists
of paired elements known as "keys" and "values." It's _sort_of_ like
an array where the indices are objects instead of numbers. "Value
Class" in that table is telling you what class of object is expected
for the value associated with the specified
The heading "Value Class" was just too cryptic for my level of
understanding. A more experienced reader would understand it to me
"the class of the value that should be placed in the dictionary of
attributes". I had already assumed that the attributes were going to
be text strings - the names of fonts in this case - so the column of
class names meant noting to me. Some common English words are used
very widely (value, system) in computing and can have many variations
in meaning depending on the context. A table column heading like this
is necessarily brief and so has little context. If you know the
subject well and are just using the table for reference then you can
supply the context. If you're reading the table as a learner the lack
of context leads to ambiguity and confusion. That's why I feel an
example, showing the column values in a context, is so important.
regards
Denis Stanton
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