Scripting style: Verbs in function names

[Richard Gaskin]

Monte Goulding wrote:

 > In a PR I have open Peter has asked me to `Please name this function
 > with a verb` and I recognised that in LiveCode this is something I
 > don’t do out of habit while in other languages it is. Why? Because in
 > the context the a function is used there is already a verb in the
 > statement in our language. I definitely think verbs should be used
 > for custom handler names though. It seems to me that if my gut
 > feeling and what I’ve been practicing for a long time is seen as
 > general best practice for the community then it should be documented.

Many languages have only functions, so to describe any action you have 
no choice but to use a verb in function names.

Pascal, xTalk, and others have both commands and functions, each with 
its own semantic role.

Every statement must have a command, and may also contain one or more 
function calls.

Since the command is the verb, it makes sense that a function would be a 
noun, a thing that the verb acts on.

When in doubt, imagine you're in a meeting with some major industry 
player and you want to show off the beautiful simplicity of LiveCode's 
"English-like" nature - do you really want do show this?:

   get getWindowList()

So much more elegant, so much more natural, so much more tTalk, to 
simply write:

   get WindowList()


--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for Desktop, Mobile, and Web
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  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com        http://www.FourthWorld.com