see also the argument glossary entrythe faq question on the difference between arguments and parametersthe inspect parameter classthe function sectionand pep path entry single location on the import path which the path based finder consults to find modules for importing path entry finder finder returned by callable on sys path_hooks ( path entry hookwhich knows how to locate modules given path entry see importlib abc pathentryfinder for the methods that path entry finders implement path entry hook callable on the sys path_hook list which returns path entry finder if it knows how to find modules on specific path entry path based finder one of the default meta path finders which searches an import path for modules path-like object an object representing file system path path-like object is either str or bytes object representing pathor an object implementing the os pathlike protocol an object that supports the os pathlike protocol can be converted to str or bytes file system path by calling the os fspath(functionos fsdecode(and os fsencode(can be used to guarantee str or bytes result insteadrespectively introduced by pep pep python enhancement proposal pep is design document providing information to the python communityor describing new feature for python or its processes or environment peps should provide concise technical specification and rationale for proposed features peps are intended to be the primary mechanisms for proposing major new featuresfor collecting community input on an issueand for documenting the design decisions that have gone into python the pep author is responsible for building consensus within the community and documenting dissenting opinions see pep portion set of files in single directory (possibly stored in zip filethat contribute to namespace packageas defined in pep positional argument see argument provisional api provisional api is one which has been deliberately excluded from the standard library' backwards compatibility guarantees while major changes to such interfaces are not expectedas long as they are marked provisionalbackwards incompatible changes (up to and including removal of the interfacemay occur if deemed necessary by core developers such changes will not be made gratuitously they will occur only if serious fundamental flaws are uncovered that were missed prior to the inclusion of the api even for provisional apisbackwards incompatible changes are seen as "solution of last resortevery attempt will still be made to find backwards compatible resolution to any identified problems this process allows the standard library to continue to evolve over timewithout locking in problematic design errors for extended periods of time see pep for more details provisional package see provisional api python nickname for the python release line (coined long ago when the release of version was something in the distant future this is also abbreviated "py kpythonic an idea or piece of code which closely follows the most common idioms of the python languagerather than implementing code using concepts common to other languages for examplea common idiom in python is to loop over all elements of an iterable using for statement many other languages don' have this type of constructso people unfamiliar with python sometimes use numerical counter insteadfor in range(len(food))print(food[ ] appendix glossary