Accessors, byLine, input ranges

[Steven Schveighoffer]

On Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:56:43 -0500, Andrei Alexandrescu  
<SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:


> So now we're down to proportions, nuance, and where "main" goes. You  
> made my point. I win.

You just don't get it.  declaring property or not is part of naming the  
function.  Any naming convention either can have strict rules or not.  You  
cited two very strict naming conventions, I cited a not-so-strict one, one  
that is open to interpretation.

A similar naming convention in Java is the "isX" being a boolean  
property.  Well, that doesn't always work because english doesn't always  
follow strict rules.  Same thing for properties.

I don't know what you think you've won.  I never said properties make  
every possible function name intuitive.

>
>> I admit this is a good example where a judgement call comes into play,  
>> but we aren't all robots obeying every rule literally.
>
> If that's not enough, I have many others. With braces or names, I obey  
> rules literally without any trouble. The problem with @property is,  
> there are too many exceptions, judgment calls, and edge cases.

We went through scores of threads dissecting the names for range methods  
and what they should be.  Does that mean that ranges are useless because  
we had to waste so much time naming their functions?  The fact that we are  
arguing over one stupid function for this long is mind-boggling.  Drop the  
straw man and look at the big picture.  MOST OF THE TIME it is useful and  
intuitive.  If that's not worth anything to you, then I don't know what  
else to say.

>
>> There are sometimes exceptions in conventions, or at least the rule is  
>> subject to interpretation.
>
> Which brings home my point: the entire business of deciding @property or  
> not is a waste of everyone's time. There's no simple rule, and there's  
> no advantage to be gained after having made the decision one way or  
> another.

No, there is no simple rule, just like there's no simple rule for symbol  
names.  If you spend the time to name your properties correctly, the  
intuition provided saves all your users from wasting time looking up the  
documentation.  It saves reviewers from wasting time looking up  
documentation to understand what a coder is doing.  It's not a waste of  
time if it has benefits, and it does.  You just refuse to believe it.

-Steve