diff --git a/sep/sep-006.rst b/sep/sep-006.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..47684258d --- /dev/null +++ b/sep/sep-006.rst @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +======= ========================================= +SEP 06 +Title Extractors +Author Ismael Carnales and a bunch of rabid mice +Created 2009-07-28 +Status Obsolete (discarded) +======= ========================================= + +========================================== +SEP-006: Rename of Selectors to Extractors +========================================== + +This SEP proposes a more meaningful naming of XPathSelectors or "Selectors" and their `x` method. + +Motivation +========== + +When you use Selectors in Scrapy, your final goal is to "extract" the data that +you've selected, as the [http://doc.scrapy.org/en/latest/topics/selectors.html +XPath Selectors documentation] says (bolding by me): + + "When you’re scraping web pages, the most common task you need to perform is + to **extract** data from the HTML source." + + "Scrapy comes with its own mechanism for **extracting** data. They’re called + ``XPath`` selectors (or just “selectors”, for short) because they “select” + certain parts of the HTML document specified by ``XPath`` expressions." + + "To actually **extract** the textual data you must call the selector + ``extract()`` method, as follows" + + "Selectors also have a ``re()`` method for **extracting** data using regular + expressions." + + "For example, suppose you want to **extract** all
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