On 04.07.2013, at 13:09, Henrik Johansen <henrik.s.johansen@veloxit.no> wrote:
On Jul 4, 2013, at 12:52 , Torsten Bergmann wrote:
Usually I thought only the C/C++ people fell in love with abbreviations - but now its our own community:
in Pharo 3.0 one can write:
Smalltalk os env
or would it be better to use:
Smalltalk operatingSystem environment
in the future?
So is the current
Smalltalk vm
better than
Smalltalk virtualMachine
I know: even a newcomer should know what "OS" means. At least Smalltalkers/Java people should know they need a "VM". But nonetheless I think a common goal would be to keep Pharo code and method selectors readable and avoid abbreviations when possible.
Also there are Pharo methods like #getEnv: instead of #getEnvironmentVariable: (interesting that they wrap the native C/C++ API "GetEnvironmentVariableA" which does not use abbreviations)
Should we care (with an issue) and use the more readable forms in the future and deprecated the abbreviation forms?
Or will we keep abbreviations for the lazy and easier typing?
If you comment please think about the goal to get readable code, the goal to get more newcomers into programming and your own first steps with Smalltalk and IT ...
My 2c: Acronyms work fine, also in method names. (os, vm) As a basic rule require to spell out ante meridiem, light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, radio detection and ranging, compact disk, and their likes, seems a bit ⦠zealous.
Agreed. There are conventional terms that can (and maybe should) be abbreviated. But in general I'm against abbreviations.
Simple abbreviations, like env, rather than using the full word, I have much less empathy for.
Cheers, Henry