Steve D'Aprano <steve+pyt...@pearwood.info> writes: > On Fri, 25 Aug 2017 09:41 am, bob gailer wrote: > >>> Help on built-in function floor in module math: >>> >>> floor(...) >>> floor(x) >>> >>> Return the floor of x as an Integral. >>> This is the largest integer <= x. > [...] > >> I was surprised by the use of "integral". A dictionary search does not >> (IMHO) support this usage! > > Integral \In"te*gral\, a. [Cf. F. int['e]gral. See Integer.]
For me (and I suspect for BG too) the surprise is in its use as a noun. The capital letter is, presumably, significant because it refers to the Python class Integral -- a subtype of numbers. With that in mind, "an Integral" is a shorthand for "an Integral value", or more fully, maybe, "an instance of numbers.Integral". > [1913 Webster] > 1. Lacking nothing of completeness; complete; perfect; > uninjured; whole; entire. > [1913 Webster] > > A local motion keepeth bodies integral. --Bacon. > [1913 Webster] > > 2. Essential to completeness; constituent, as a part; > pertaining to, or serving to form, an integer; integrant. > [1913 Webster] > > Ceasing to do evil, and doing good, are the two > great integral parts that complete this duty. > --South. > [1913 Webster] > > 3. (Math.) > (a) Of, pertaining to, or being, a whole number or > undivided quantity; not fractional. > (b) Pertaining to, or proceeding by, integration; as, the > integral calculus. > [1913 Webster] The use as a noun is not covered here, though it is only a small step from other places where membership of a mathematical set has turned the adjective into a noun. "Rational" and "real" started out as adjectives, but their use as nouns is now widespread. "The function returns a real". "The result is a rational". It's much less common for complex and integral, to the point that it sounds wrong to me. -- Ben. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
