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Introduce "type names" section to the style guide #1828

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Introduce "type names" section to the style guide #1828

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8935bce
Introduce "type names" section to the style guide
sirosen Jun 7, 2026
1328257
Apply suggestion from @StanFromIreland
sirosen Jun 7, 2026
3c5e2c7
Move "specific words" and "type names" down in page
sirosen Jun 11, 2026
e0faa0c
Add explicit anchor for style-guide links section
sirosen Jun 12, 2026
81deaa3
Make the style-guide 'links' ref more usable
sirosen Jun 12, 2026
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21 changes: 21 additions & 0 deletions documentation/style-guide.rst
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Expand Up @@ -116,6 +116,27 @@ Unix
1970s.


Type names
==========

When writing the names of types in prose, write the name of the type
exactly as it appears in source, styled as a class reference or an unlinked
class. For example, refer to dict as ``:class:`dict`‌`` or ``:class:`!dict`‌``.

Links should be used according to the :ref:`guidance on links <links>`.

@StanFromIreland StanFromIreland Jun 12, 2026

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/home/runner/work/devguide/devguide/documentation/style-guide.rst:155: WARNING: undefined label: 'links' [ref.ref]

@sirosen sirosen Jun 12, 2026

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Shouldn't that link to the section title? I feel certain that this worked for me.

I just added an explicit anchor, on the assumption that I got confused and forgot how sphinx handles section-names.

@StanFromIreland StanFromIreland Jun 12, 2026

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Shouldn't that link to the section title?

You have a :ref:, not a regular link `guidance on links `_ (I don't remember if we still need the #) is what you're thinking about

I'm +1 for an explicit reference however, I think it's far more future proof. But can we rename it to something a little more useful, like links-style-guide.

@sirosen sirosen Jun 12, 2026

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Ah, so that we can use it from outside of the style-guide! Yes, I like that, but mildly prefer style-guide-links (namespace first).

I've added a co-authored commit. 🙂


Some type names are commonly understood ideas or nouns outside of Python.
For example, "tuples" are a general programming concept, as distinct from the
``tuple`` type. When referring to general ideas, do not style the relevant word
as a type.

Many types have descriptive names which do not exactly match their type
name. For example, "context variables" describes ``contextvars.ContextVar``,
and "partial function" may be used to describe an application of
``functools.partial``. Use these names only when they serve to clarify the text
better than the type name itself would, and put them in lowercase.
Comment on lines +148 to +166

@hugovk hugovk Jun 7, 2026

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I suggest moving this entry after the simple language one, and perhaps also after the charged terminology one as well.

@sirosen sirosen Jun 7, 2026

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Should the "Specific words" section above it also move? I thought it made sense to put these together, and I still do. What would you say to moving both of these?

I could do it here (pragmatic and easy, but my least favorite way), do a precursor PR to move "Specific words" down, or do a follow-up PR.

@hugovk hugovk Jun 11, 2026 •
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Moving "Specific words" sounds okay to me, no preference whether in this PR or another.

@sirosen sirosen Jun 11, 2026

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I'll do it here.

I'm used to smaller projects with relatively much more review bandwidth per PR. I'm adjusting a bit for cpython and related projects. 🙂

@sirosen sirosen Jun 11, 2026

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3c5e2c7 pushes them down, and as "proof" of my work making no other changes, the git diff selects the text which I did not cut-and-paste.

I did introduce one extra newline, which seemed like it was missing for a section-break.



Use simple language
===================

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