Re: [PW-dev] parameter names (dash, underscore, none)

[Cees H. <ce...@si...>]

On Tue, 19 Jun 2001, Stephen Adkins wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I continue to work on the next mini-release of the 
> Perl Widget Library.  I have incorporated a number
> of parameters from style sheets such as "border-style", etc.
> 
> Usage looks like this.
> 
> $last_name  = $wc->widget(
>       -name  => "last_name",
>       -widget_class => "Widget::HTML::TextField",
>       -size  => 8,                 # from HTML spec
>       -maxlength => 18,            # from HTML spec
>       -color => "#6666CC",         # from CSS spec
>       -font_size => "10px",        # from CSS spec
>       -border_style => "solid",    # from CSS spec
>       -border_width => "1px",      # from CSS spec
>       -border_color => "#6666CC",  # from CSS spec
>       -padding => "2px",           # from CSS spec
>       -background_color => "#ccffcc",           # from CSS spec
>       -font_family => "Verdana, Geneva, Arial", # from CSS spec
>       -override => 1,              # increase precedence of options to
> "override" from "default"
>       -validate => "date",         # "date", "time", "datetime", "enum",
> "number", "integer", ":regexp"
>    )->html();
> 
> However, this presents a stylistic dilemma with parameter names.
> If I use "border-style", the syntax would be
> 
> $last_name = $wc->widget(
>       -border-style => "solid",
> )->html();
> 
> However, this fails because "-border-style" cannot be a bareword.
> I have so far opted to changed dashes in attribute names to underscores.
> This is the first option.

I think in these situations it is best to look at solutions that other
developers have opted for.  Personallly, I don't like underscores.  That
is how I define private menthods, so it just doesn't seem right.  Also,
since the CGI.pm module uses '-', it could confuse people.  When do i use
_ and when do I use -.

JavaScript has this same problem with stylesheets and accessing styles
from within code.  They opted for removing the middle dash and using an UC
letter (ie -border-style becomes -borderStyle).

I think it is more user-friendly to be consistent with related languages
and modules in this case (people are likely to use a mix of Widget.pm,
CGI.pm and Javascript in the same project), then to come up with yet
another different way of doing things.

Cees