Inconsistent use of the "free threading" term

[ZeroIntensity]

Documentation

I noticed this here. There are currently 4 ways to refer to the FT build:

• "free threaded" (11 uses)
• "free threading" (10 uses)
• "free-threaded" (9 uses)
• "free-threading" (1 hit)

Ideally, we should be consistent. I guess there are two things to solve here:

1. Should there be a hyphen?
2. Should it be the "free(-)threaded build" or the "free(-)threading build"?

[vstinner]

Steering Council decided to use "free threading" and "free threaded": python/steering-council#221 (comment) No hyphen.

It should be "free threaded build".

[hugovk]

I often follow this guideline: the hyphen depends if "free threading" (or "free threaded") is itself a noun, or something modifying another noun.

• When it's a noun, no hyphen: "now supports free threading"

• When it's before a noun, do hyphenate: "in the free-threaded build"

For example:

• https://developers.google.com/style/hyphens#compound-modifiers-before-a-noun

[colesbury]

What @hugovk said. I'd add:

1. The more natural sounding form "threaded" vs. "threading" depends on context
2. If you're confused, stick the phrase with context into ChatGPT (or Claude or Gemini or whatever). It's pretty good at this sort of thing.

[ZeroIntensity]

When it's before a noun, do hyphenate: "in the free-threaded build"

Okay, that seems right, but this makes many of the current usages in the docs incorrect. In the examples I linked, almost every use of "free threading/threaded" without the hyphen is suffixed with "build". Is that worth fixing? On the one hand, it's nice to be grammatically correct. On the other hand, I don't think anyone will notice or care. Does anyone have a strong opinion one way or the other?

We could add a "free-threaded build" term to the glossary (or "free-threading build", whatever) to keep things consistent and correct going forward, but again, that might not be worth the extra effort.

[hugovk]

People have noticed and cared, that's what we have this issue :)

Yes, we can fix them, and can add to the style guide: https://devguide.python.org/documentation/style-guide/