On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 7:02 AM, William Tanksley, Jr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Slava Pestov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I don't like the ! suffix because it overlaps with comments. What >> about past tense to denote mutation? >> suffix suffixed >> append appended >> reverse reversed >> remove removed (or pluck, plucked)? >> remove-nth removed-nth (or snip, snipped)? > > That won't work at all -- or rather, it's the opposite of what you > want. That's not the simple past tense -- it's the past participle. It > doesn't mean that the action has been performed; rather, it's an > adjective that usually indicates a _distinct object_. > > For example, if you have a list and you write [list sorted] you're > implying that there are two possible lists -- one sorted and one > unsorted. Thus, past participle indicates duplication (i.e. > immutability), not mutation. This is why people are getting confused > about this proposal. > > One example of my usage appears in Python, where the normal list.sort > method applies in-place, while the sorted() function produces a sorted > copy. > > Now, if you want to be fancy with your grammar, using the past > participle would be excellent for non-mutating functions. > > One warning: be consistent, please. Most languages fail at this (eg. > Ruby's "!" suffix). > >> Slava > > -Wm
I second all of this, and what everyone else has been saying. If we're going to make a language change here (which it's reasonable to delay), it shouldn't be to something like this, and out of the things proposed so far, I like the ! suffix the best. (The stack effect issue is orthogonal.) Dan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Factor-talk mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/factor-talk
