scripting style issue
Richard Gaskin
ambassador at fourthworld.com
Tue Jan 14 04:18:17 EST 2003
As documented in the Script Style Guide at
<http://www.fourthworld.com/embassy/articles/scriptstyle.html>, I'm fairly
OCD when it comes to variable names, having adopted the sort of
Hungarian-notation-lite that makes dissecting code just a little easier.
There's an item not addressed in that document that's becoming an
ever-bigger part of my scripting: arrays.
It's useful to denote arrays distinctly because they require different
syntax from other variable types. For example, you can get the value of an
arrany element, but you can't get a displayable string from the array
itself.
For a long time I just added the word "Array" to the end of a variable name
as a reminder, like "gMyOpenWindowsArray". As I use arrays more and more, I
simply don't want to type that much, any more than I would type
"globalMyOpenWindows"
In recent weeks I've started adding an "a" after the type specifier as a
shorter, arguably clearer, notation:
string form: gMyOpenWindows
array form: gaMyOpenWindows
With script-locals being:
string form: sMyOpenWindows
array form: saMyOpenWindows
Parameters:
string form: pMyOpenWindows
array form: paMyOpenWindows
...etc.
While I've enjoyed this in my own scripting, I recognize there's a fine line
between adding specificity and making things cumbersome.
So three questions:
1. Does this convention seem useful? Specifically, should I bother adding it
to the Script Style Guide?
2. How do you denote arrays?
3. Is this boring?
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Media Corporation
Developer of WebMerge 2.1: Publish any database on any site
___________________________________________________________
Ambassador at FourthWorld.com http://www.FourthWorld.com
Tel: 323-225-3717 AIM: FourthWorldInc
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