The most recommended way of naming methods in Ruby

Ruby
1

Rubists,

What is the most recommended (or the conventional) way of naming methods
in
Ruby? Do they need to be verb-like or noun-like? In other language like
C++,
methods are supposed to be verbs because they are dimmed as messages
sent to
the object. I have asked this because methods in Ruby are also objects.

Edmond (ceekays)
Software Developer | Baobab Health Trust (http://www.baobabhealth.org/)
|
Malawi

Cell: +265 999 465 137 | +265 881 234 717

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year 2011!!*
*

2

On Jan 18, 2011, at 00:16 , Edmond K. wrote:

What is the most recommended (or the conventional) way of naming methods in
Ruby? Do they need to be verb-like or noun-like? In other language like C++,
methods are supposed to be verbs because they are dimmed as messages sent to
the object. I have asked this because methods in Ruby are also objects.

verbs_underscore_separated
predicate?
dangerous_mutator!

3

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 9:16 AM, Edmond K.
[email protected] wrote:

What is the most recommended (or the conventional) way of naming methods in
Ruby? Do they need to be verb-like or noun-like? In other language like C++,
methods are supposed to be verbs because they are dimmed as messages sent to
the object. I have asked this because methods in Ruby are also objects.

Not exactly. There was a lengthy discussion here about whether
methods are objects or not. Strictly speaking they are not, but you
can obtain an object representing a bound or unbound method.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year 2011!!*

ed.update_signature!

Cheers

robert

4

2011/1/18 Robert K. [email protected]

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 9:16 AM, Edmond K.
[email protected] wrote:

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year 2011!!*

ed.update_signature!

Lol!

*>> ed.updated?

true
ed.signature**.datetime
Mon Jan 03 08:00:25 0200 2011

That’s what happens when one is using offline mail clients. My offline
mail
client for some reason is getting an old signature.

Edmond(ceekays)
Software Developer | Baobab Health Trust (http://www.baobabhealth.org/)
|
Malawi

Cell: +265 999 465 137 | +265 881 234 717*
**
An old dog does not hunt because of speed, but his endurance of the
heart.*
*
*

5
  • Interrogative methods get phrased as questions:
    obj.date_today?
    obj.name?
    obj.calculation_done?

As you said; but I would only use this interrogative form myself if the
method returned true/false. That’s how it works in core Ruby?

6

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 5:21 PM, Shadowfirebird
[email protected] wrote:

  • Interrogative methods get phrased as questions:
    obj.date_today?
    obj.name?
    obj.calculation_done?

As you said; but I would only use this interrogative form myself if the method
returned true/false. That’s how it works in core Ruby?

It’s more relaxed since you can use any object reference as boolean
value. For example, you may do

class X
attr_accessor :name
alias name? name
end

if the test should return a trueish value if the name is set (actually
not nil and not false).

Kind regards

robert

7

On Jan 18, 2011, at 7:30 AM, Phillip G. wrote:

  • methods that modify the object (or caller) itself, should be exclamations:
    obj.truncate!
    obj.remove_name!
    obj.date! “Julian” # I wish I could do obj.date “Julian”!, instead. Ah, well.

I think the conventional wisdom is that this should only be done only if
there is a matching non-mutating method that has the name without the
exclamation mark.

Gary W.

8

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 9:16 AM, Edmond K.
[email protected] wrote:

Rubists,

What is the most recommended (or the conventional) way of naming methods in
Ruby? Do they need to be verb-like or noun-like? In other language like C++,
methods are supposed to be verbs because they are dimmed as messages sent to
the object. I have asked this because methods in Ruby are also objects.

Well, I can’t speak for Rubyists in general, but I aim for the
following:

  • methods that do something should be verbs:
    obj.calculate
    obj.set_name
    obj.get_date

  • methods that are accessors (or behave like them) should be nouns:
    foo = obj.name
    puts obj.date
    obj.calculation

  • Interrogative methods get phrased as questions:
    obj.date_today?
    obj.name?
    obj.calculation_done?

  • methods that modify the object (or caller) itself, should be
    exclamations:
    obj.truncate!
    obj.remove_name!
    obj.date! “Julian” # I wish I could do obj.date “Julian”!, instead.
    Ah, well.

–
Phillip G.

Though the folk I have met,
(Ah, how soon!) they forget
When I’ve moved on to some other place,
There may be one or two,
When I’ve played and passed through,
Who’ll remember my song or my face.

9

It’s more relaxed since you can use any object reference as boolean
value. For example, you may do

class X
attr_accessor :name
alias name? name
end

if the test should return a trueish value if the name is set (actually
not nil and not false).

What, “classname = Myclass.name?”? Ew. Sorry, I wouldn’t be
comfortable with that. Where in the core Ruby classes does that happen?

10

Le 18 janvier 2011 22:01:11 UTC+2, Gary W. [email protected] a crit
:

I think the conventional wisdom is that this should only be done only if
there is a matching non-mutating method that has the name without the
exclamation mark.

Someone may give more info on why it should be like this:

Edmond
Software Developer | Baobab Health Trust (http://www.baobabhealth.org/)
|
Malawi

Cell: +265 999 465 137 | +265 881 234 717*
**
An old dog does not hunt because of speed, but his endurance of the
heart.*

11

On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 3:13 PM, Shadowfirebird
[email protected] wrote:

What, “classname = Myclass.name?”? Ew. Sorry, I wouldn’t be comfortable with
that. Where in the core Ruby classes does that happen?

I am not sure what you are hinting at. Clarification - just in case:
I did not redefine the class’s name in the example above.

Cheers

robert

12

On Jan 19, 2011, at 3:13 AM, Edmond K. wrote:

well.

I think the conventional wisdom is that this should only be done only if
there is a matching non-mutating method that has the name without the
exclamation mark.

Someone may give more info on why it should be like this:

I think you left something off. Anyway…

Here is a great explanation of the ‘!’ naming convention:

http://dablog.rubypal.com/2007/8/15/bang-methods-or-danger-will-rubyist

I was going to try to explain this but why bother when David Black has
already done a great job?

Gary W.

13

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 12:30 PM, Phillip G. <
[email protected]> wrote:

obj.set_name
obj.get_date

What is this! Java?

obj.name # get!
obj.date = different_date # set!

14

2011/1/19 Gary W. [email protected]

Here is a great explanation of the ‘!’ naming convention:

http://dablog.rubypal.com/2007/8/15/bang-methods-or-danger-will-rubyist

I was going to try to explain this but why bother when David Black has
already done a great job?

I like you on this.

Edmond
Software Developer | Baobab Health Trust (http://www.baobabhealth.org/)
|
Malawi

Cell: +265 999 465 137 | +265 881 234 717*
**
An old dog does not hunt because of speed, but his endurance of the
heart.*
*
*