Discussion Thread: DIP 1030--Named Arguments--Final Review

[Paul Backus]

On Wednesday, 13 May 2020 at 12:15:38 UTC, Steven Schveighoffer 
wrote:
> On 5/13/20 4:17 AM, Jacob Carlborg wrote:
>> On 2020-05-12 08:22, Jonathan Marler wrote:
>> Also, we should avoiding having short, abbreviated symbol 
>> names (any kind of symbol names, not just parameter names). 
>> Although it's worse to have abbreviated names which are part 
>> of the API or show up in generated documentation. There are 
>> always exceptions, like when abbreviated name is more known 
>> and common than the actual full name. Examples are: HTTP, FTP 
>> and so on.
>
> HTTP and FTP are acronyms, which in my opinion ARE the full 
> names.
>
> Abbreviations are fine when the abbreviation is unambiguous, 
> like src and dest.

Even with such unambiguous abbreviations, the programmer still 
has to keep track of (a) which words are abbreviated and which 
are spelled out ("is it `source` or `src`?"), and (b) which 
abbreviations are used for words with multiple possibilities 
(e.g., "is it `dest` or `dst`?"). Spelling everything out means 
you never have to think about this stuff at all--there's always 
exactly one obvious, correct choice.