I'm strongly against removing the prefix. I got used to this and it has
its meaning all the time I inspect code (even my own) and doing
reviews. Recognizing a variable is an argument is very very useful.
It's important to have it and it's good we enforce it!
-hb-
On 7/7/2015 5:12, Jeff Gilbert wrote:
I propose that we stop recommending the universal use of an 'a' prefix for
arguments to functions in C and C++. If the prefix helps with
disambiguation, that's fine. However, use of this prefix should not be
prescribed in general.
`aFoo` does not provide any additional safety that I know of.[1] As a
superfluous prefix, it adds visual noise, reducing immediate readability of
all function declarations and subsequent usage of the variables within the
function definition.
Notable works or style guides [2] which do not recommend `aFoo`: [3]
* Google
* Linux Kernel
* Bjarne Stroustrup
* GCC
* LLVM
* Java Style (Java, non-C)
* PEP 0008 (Python, non-C)
* FreeBSD
* Unreal Engine
* Unity3D (largely C#)
* Spidermonkey
* Daala
* RR
* Rust
* Folly (from Facebook)
* C++ STL entrypoints
* IDL for web specs on W3C and WhatWG
* etc.
Notable works or style guides which *do* recommend `aFoo`:
* Mozilla (except for IDL, Java, and Python)
* ?
3rd-party projects in our tree which do not use `aFoo`:
* Cairo
* Skia
* ANGLE
* HarfBuzz
* ICU
* Chromium IPC
* everything under modules/ that isn't an nsFoo.c/cpp/h
* etc.?
3rd-party projects in our tree which *do* recommend `aFoo`:
* ?
As far as I can tell, the entire industry disagrees with us (as well as a
number of our own projects), which means we should have a good reason or
two for making our choice. No such reason is detailed in the style guide.
I propose we strike the `aFoo` recommendation from the Mozilla style guide.
-
[1]: Maybe it prevents accidental shadowing? No: Either this isn't allowed
by spec, or at least MSVC 2013 errors when compiling this.
[2]: I do not mean this as an endorsement of the listed works and guides,
but rather as illustration on how unusual our choice is.
[3]: I created an Etherpad into which people are welcome to gather other
works, projects, or style guides that I missed:
https://etherpad.mozilla.org/6FcHs9mJYQ
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