Pairs of identifiers
Frequently functions appear in pairs like hOpen
and hClose
, read
and show
and so on.
Libraries are a lot easier to use if they use a consistent scheme of names for related functions.
It is even better if many libraries would share the same scheme.
This can be useful both for designing function names and
for easy guessing of the counterpart of some function.
Here is a collection of some pairs of identifiers I stumbled on in AmigaOS, MUI, Modula-3, Haskell libraries, and C++ STL. This could be a basis for further discussion.
It would be great if the discussion lead to a more streamlined collection where for instance some duplicates are removed.
Create | Delete | |
New | Dispose | |
Construct | Destruct | |
Alloc | Free | |
Obtain | Release | Attempt |
Lock | UnLock | |
Procure | Vacate | |
Forbid | Permit | |
Disable | Enable | |
Put | Get | |
Set | Get | |
Write | Read | |
Poke | Peek | |
Open | Close | |
Save | Load | |
Load | UnLoad | |
Init | Exit | |
Setup | Cleanup | |
Show | Hide | |
Insert | Remove | |
Add | Rem | |
Push | Pull | |
Push | Pop | |
Start | Stop | Size |
Begin | End | Length |
First | Last | Number |
Head | Tail | |
Front | Back | |
Top | Bottom | |
Fmt | Lex | |
Input | Output |
Discussion
read and show
I think the names read
and show
in the Prelude of Haskell98 aren't a good choice
because the functions can be considered as natural pair
but this isn't reflected by their names.
Even more read
and show
sound like some I/O operations which they are not.
The choice for the Modula-3 libraries (Lex
and Fmt
) seems to be more suitable. -- HenningThielemann
trees
I had a nice discussion the other day with someone about the right name for tree nodes and leaves. The constructors I'm using as a result are Branch
and Leaf
. Anyone feel differently? -- BartMassey
[Category:Style]