re: Aaron Larson's comments

[sandra%defun@cs.utah.edu (Sandra J Loosemore)]

I don't feel qualified to comment on the instance/member issue, but
on the element/component issue, I agree with everybody else:

>I agree with you that elements are things indexable by integers, slots are
>things indexable by name, and components are parts and constituents, generally
>not indexable.

Also, relating to rpg's comment:

>    Note that ``component'' does not refer to contiguous storage, or to storage
>    necessarily. 

This is probably not intuitively obvious to everyone.  In my mind, the
word "component" conjures up strong mental pictures about storage,
which is why I have been objecting to its usage in terms of symbol
"components", for example.  I'd be happier with this term if it were
defined in the glossary with a definition that made it clear that,
when it is used in a technical sense, it has nothing to do with
storage.  Alternatively, I have previously suggested using a term like
"attribute", which is not quite as loaded.

-Sandra
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