Re: outlet v. context

[Carl Sorensen]

On Tue, Jul 7, 2020 at 5:05 PM Dan Eble <dan@faithful.be> wrote:

> On Jul 4, 2020, at 11:27, Dan Eble <dan@faithful.be> wrote:
> >
> > Ugh.  I'm working on the outlet/context change now (involving lots of
> rebasing of my work in progress).  I'll probably be unwilling to do more
> than that immediately, but regardless, I should let others weigh in on
> get_foo() v. foo() first.
>
> I prefer get_foo().  I tend to interpret function names as verbs and
> "get_" clarifies when they are not.  Context can help, but I'd rather have
> the "get_".
>
>     group()            get_group()
>     start()            get_start()
>     error()            get_error()
>     rank()             get_rank()
>     bound()            get_bound()
>     output()           get_output()
>     rest()             get_rest()
>     note()             get_note()
>     flag()             get_flag()
>     position()         get_position()
>     control_points()   get_control_points()
>     list()             get_list()
>

I appreciate your preference, but mine is exactly opposite.

The only time I would like a member function of a class to have a verb name
is when it causes a side effect.

When the job of a function is to return a result that can be used
elsewhere, to me the goal is a result, and hence, it is a noun.  flag()
refers to an object -- a flag.  get_flag focuses on the action, not the
result.  And most often, it's the result that I want -- which is a noun.

This is just my opinion, and I can live with it either way.  But I think
that get_ is just unneeded noise in most cases.

Thanks,

Carl