I think it is a good idea. I have been considering something like that myself after I properly realized that array variables are a different kind of beast than normal variables.

I wish that Scott would add functions that allow to list array vars -- as I noticed earlier, they are omitted from normal variable lists (which I see now making sense).

I normally use g in front of globals and p for parameter names. However, in a large multistack project, I found that prefixing them with "xxxx$" works better (xxx is the name of the stack). Since some of the parallel stacks in this project have similar functionality, this allows me to have the same var name (to denote the same type of content) but still avoid namespace conflicts. In parallel, I use "xxx." for names of local vars. Furthermore, since these stacks share some handlers through "stacksinuse", I use similar notation for handler names -- those intended for global use start with "xxxx$" and those for local use start with "xxxx."

I guess the point is that it is good to have a clear and consitent naming style, although no one set of guidelines can work for all cases. However, what you propose will be a good starting point for many people.

Robert


 -----Original Message-----
 From: Richard Gaskin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
 Sent: 14 January 2003 10:13
 To: MetaCard List; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: scripting style issue



 As documented in the Script Style Guide at
 <http://www.fourthworld.com/embassy/articles/scriptstyle.html>
 , I'm fairly
 OCD when it comes to variable names, having adopted the sort of
 Hungarian-notation-lite that makes dissecting code just a
 little easier.

 There's an item not addressed in that document that's becoming an
 ever-bigger part of my scripting: arrays.

 It's useful to denote arrays distinctly because they require different
 syntax from other variable types.  For example, you can get
 the value of an
 arrany element, but you can't get a displayable string from the array
 itself.

 For a long time I just added the word "Array" to the end of a
 variable name
 as a reminder, like "gMyOpenWindowsArray".  As I use arrays
 more and more, I
 simply don't want to type that much, any more than I would type
 "globalMyOpenWindows"

 In recent weeks I've started adding an "a" after the type
 specifier as a
 shorter, arguably clearer, notation:

   string form:  gMyOpenWindows
   array form:   gaMyOpenWindows

 With script-locals being:

   string form:  sMyOpenWindows
   array form:   saMyOpenWindows

 Parameters:

   string form:  pMyOpenWindows
   array form:   paMyOpenWindows

 ...etc.

 While I've enjoyed this in my own scripting, I recognize
 there's a fine line
 between adding specificity and making things cumbersome.

 So three questions:

 1. Does this convention seem useful? Specifically, should I
 bother adding it
 to the Script Style Guide?

 2. How do you denote arrays?

 3. Is this boring?

 --
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  Developer of WebMerge 2.1: Publish any database on any site
  ___________________________________________________________
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]       http://www.FourthWorld.com
  Tel: 323-225-3717                       AIM: FourthWorldInc

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