how do you pronounce 'tuple'?

C

Carl Cerecke

Erik said:
I prefer the name _pair_ :).



Yeah. The short form is that both are right and which one is more
common is probably regional more than anything. I've heard people say
_toople_ vs. _tuhple_, but I've never heard anyone say _quintoople_ vs.
_quintuhple_ (granted, not that the situation arises all that often).

But come to think of it, it kind of does. I've heard _quintuhplet_ and
_sextuhplet_ and the like plenty of times, and I've never heard it
pronounced the other way (in General American). m-w.com shows something
interesting here -- the first listed pronunciation for _quintuple_ is oo
with uh being an alternate, but the first listed pronunciation for
_quintuplet_ is uh with oo being an alternate. Which probably goes to
emphasize that that it's just whatever you're used to and there's no
rhyme or reason to any of it.
Of course that's still a completely valid construct in Python so the
question stands. If a 4-tuple is a quadruple, a 3-tuple is a triple, a
2-tuple is an pair, then I guess a 1-tuple would be a single. Granted
that's not nearly as gruesome enough a name to go with the special
lopsided Pythonic creature mentioned above. I suggest we name it a
hurgledink.

So, ahhh, what about zero-tuples? zuple? uple? Surely it would be better
for 2,1, and 0-tuples to be called 2,1, and 0-tuples.

And, BTW, in New Zealand, I've only ever heard the pronunciation
'tupple'. toople sounds kind-of stoopid.

Cheers,
Carl.
 
R

Roy Smith

Erik Max Francis said:
(A 2-tuple is an "ordered pair" in mathematics.) If a 2-tuple is a
pair, then it would seem to follow that a 1-tuple is a single.

Yeah, but an *ordered* single :)

A more interesting question is what do you call ()? A none-tuple?
 
E

Erik Max Francis

Roy said:
A more interesting question is what do you call ()? A none-tuple?

Yeah, that's at the point where it _really_ departs from anything
remotely mathematical. Don't think I've ever heard the occasion to talk
about 0-tuples in any context, though, so I don't think it's something
we need to worry about. I'm sure you'd just call them "empty tuples" or
"0-tuples" and move on :).
 
T

Tim Hochberg

Erik said:
Roy Smith wrote:




Yeah, that's at the point where it _really_ departs from anything
remotely mathematical. Don't think I've ever heard the occasion to talk
about 0-tuples in any context, though, so I don't think it's something
we need to worry about. I'm sure you'd just call them "empty tuples" or
"0-tuples" and move on :).

There's only one tuple of length zero, so I just call it "Spot".
True
 
T

Terry Hancock

I prefer the name _pair_ :).

Yeah, that works too.
In mathematics there's really no such entity ...

Yeah, well that's we have no name for it. And yet, there
it is.
Of course that's still a completely valid construct in
Python so the question stands. If a 4-tuple is a
quadruple, a 3-tuple is a triple, a 2-tuple is an pair,
then I guess a 1-tuple would be a single. Granted that's
not nearly as gruesome enough a name to go with the
special lopsided Pythonic creature mentioned above. I
suggest we name it a hurgledink.

Best suggestion I've heard yet! ;-)

Thanks all -- I really laughed reading this thread, I
really didn't expect my stupid question to get such
an enthusiastic response. :-D
 
A

Alan Kennedy

[Terry Hancock]
So what's a 1-element tuple, anyway? A "mople"? "monople"?
It does seem like this lopsided pythonic creature (1,) ought
to have a name to reflect its ugly, newbie-unfriendly
nature.

It's a "trip-you-uple", which you can pronounce anyway you like ;-)
 
E

Erik Max Francis

Alan said:
[Terry Hancock]
So what's a 1-element tuple, anyway? A "mople"? "monople"?
It does seem like this lopsided pythonic creature (1,) ought
to have a name to reflect its ugly, newbie-unfriendly
nature.

It's a "trip-you-uple", which you can pronounce anyway you like ;-)

All I hear there is "triple you up," which is good if you're in a poker
tournament, which I suppose tells you where my mind has been lately.
 
C

Christoph Zwerschke

Then we went to hear Guido speak about Python 2.2 at a ZPUG meeting in
Washington, DC. When he said toople I almost fell out of my chair
laughing, particularly because the people who taught me to say it the
"right" way were with me. When I looked over, they just hung their
head in shame.

"Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch." ;-)

(or German) -- Christoph
 
R

Rocco Moretti

Erik said:
If a 4-tuple is a quadruple, a 3-tuple is a triple, a
2-tuple is an pair, then I guess a 1-tuple would be a single. Granted
that's not nearly as gruesome enough a name to go with the special
lopsided Pythonic creature mentioned above. I suggest we name it a
hurgledink.

+1 QOTW
 
T

Tim Peters

[[email protected]]
...
I work with Guido now and I'm conflicted. I'm still conditioned to say
tuhple. Whenever he says toople, I just get a smile on my face. I
think most of the PythonLabs guys pronounce it toople.

"tuhple" is a girly-man affectation. That's why Guido and I both say
the manly "toople". Jeremy's still a baby, so he says "tuhple", and
for the same reasons other adolescent males pierce their nipples.
Barry sucks up to whoever he's talking with at the moment. Fred is a
doc guy, so nobody remembers what he says ;-)

the-acid-test-is-whether-you-say-"xor"-with-one-syllable-or-three-ly y'rs - tim
 
J

John Salerno

Tim said:
"tuhple" is a girly-man affectation. That's why Guido and I both say
the manly "toople".

Heh heh. Actually, 'toople' sounds like a noun to me, and 'tuple' sounds
like a verb, so I prefer 'toople' anyway.
 
J

Jack Diederich

the-acid-test-is-whether-you-say-"xor"-with-one-syllable-or-three-ly y'rs - tim

"Zorr!" of course.
Saying "All hail the mighty Exclusive Or!" would just sound silly.

-jackdied
 
S

Steve Holden

Paddy said:
Hmm,
I've found a term for a large tuple, a muckle:


http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=define:muckle&btnG=Search&meta=

Definitions of muckle on the Web:

* batch: (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or
extent; "a batch of letters"; "a deal of trouble"; "a lot of money";
"he made a mint on the stock market"; "it must have cost plenty"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
As in that well-known Scottish saying

"Mony a mickle make a muckle"

meaning many small things add up to something great. Due, I believe, the
the great Rabbie Burns.

regards
Steve
 

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