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

[alex b. <en...@tu...>]

> feel quite natural for at least a few pockets of programmers laboring in
> unlabeled buildings in a few urban centers:

heh

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

This is certainly the standard for Javascript, and indeed many other
languages.

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

I've never seen the latter. Though it is interesting, and would still work
with the "global variable concept" I presented before. PHP Replaces the .
with an _ regardless of where it is in the name.

> 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.

I agree here.

> 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

I don't quite agree there, but at the same time I do like the fact that it
solves the "private methods vs. public variables, that's counterintuitive"
problem.


> 2.) Getters and setters:
>
> I agree with Aderhold re: getProperty() and setProperty(...) seem quite
> natural.

as does any other verb-noun combination:

checkPermissions
logIn
collectGarbage

etc.


> 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.

While I agree, I'm a little reticent to add a feature like that when I have
a feeling that Zeev and friends will be adding it themselves.

However, I do see the point.

more thinking to do...

_alex


> 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.