[binarycloud-dev] my $.02 on variable naming conventions

[A B. <ab...@ab...>]

In light of the recent discussions about variable and method naming
conventions I'd like to add my suggestions based on what I've used in
numerous large projects in C++, Java, and lately in PHP that tend to
feel quite natural for at least a few pockets of programmers laboring in
unlabeled buildings in a few urban centers:


1.) Variable and method names: mixed case with lower case leading, with
leading or trailing underscores to signify private or global.

e.g. $userName seems to be favored and $_userName for a local and
"private" variables, $userName_ for global and for "public".

Digression on associating private/local with leading underscore - we
read code from left to right and somehow the underscore being located to
the left seems to connote something that is more restricted or internal.
Whereas a trailing underscore seems to imply something "further out" or
global or public. At least for many programmers I've worked with. This
seems to agree with the
http://www.thyrell.de/info/downloads/CodeGuide.pdf document.


Sadly, function names are not case sensitive in php, so one has to be a
bit careful.



2.) Getters and setters:

I agree with Aderhold re: getProperty() and setProperty(...) seem quite
natural.



It's too bad that php doesn't support function overloading, it would be
nice to be able to define setter and getter functions as:

$obj->name_() - gets name value, name($stringVarHere) - sets name value
$obj->name_($someName_);  sets the $_name property of $obj to equal
$someName_

It would be nice if binary cloud allowed this convention also.



One simple workaround to the overloading problem:

class test
{
var $_name="not set";

function name_($val)
{
	 if(isset($val))
		$this->_name=$val;
	 else
	    return $this->_name;
}

}
/* exercise class test */
$obj=new test;
$tvar=$obj->name_(null);
echo "obj name is $tvar<br>";
$obj->name_("set");
$tvar=$obj->name_(null);
echo "obj name is $tvar<br>";



The above are just my own thoughts - I wanted to add my vote to the
discussion. Thank you.