[swift-evolution] [Review] SE-0023 API Design Guidelines

[Dave Abrahams]

on Sun Jan 24 2016, Jacob Bandes-Storch <jtbandes-AT-gmail.com> wrote:

> Nasa doesn't read fine to me; it's never stylized that way. Radar does, and
> scuba, because they've been appropriated for use as non-capitalized words
> over time in the language. I understand the difference, but I don't think
> the useful distinction (for purposes of this discussion) is between
> acronyms and initialisms. You probably can't find acronyms that are
> stylized as sentence-/lowercase, 
> but you can certainly find initialisms that aren't (e.g. NASA).

I think you got your acronym/initialism definitions mixed up there; NASA
and RADAR are acronyms; HTML is an initialism.

> Jacob Bikeshed-Swift
>
> On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 3:13 PM, Dave Abrahams via swift-evolution <
> swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> on Sun Jan 24 2016, Charles Kissinger <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>>
>> >> On Jan 23, 2016, at 10:39 PM, Douglas Gregor <dgregor at apple.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>>
>> >>> On Jan 22, 2016, at 9:34 PM, Charles Kissinger
>> >>> <crk at akkyra.com
>> >
>> >>> <mailto:crk at akkyra.com>> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> On Jan 22, 2016, at 3:59 PM, Trent Nadeau via swift-evolution
>> >>>> <swift-evolution at swift.org
>> >>>> <mailto:swift-evolution at swift.org>>
>> >>>> wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Under "Follow case conventions", how should acronyms (like "HTML") be
>> handled: HTMLElement or HtmlElement?
>> >>>
>> >>> I would certainly prefer the second style. Unless the acronym comes
>> >>> at the end of the identifier, it is more readable when only the
>> >>> first letter of the acronym is uppercase, IMO. Otherwise the
>> >>> acronym merges with the capitalized first letter of the following
>> >>> word.
>> >>>
>> >>> Using all caps for acronyms also doesn’t work very well at the start
>> of a variable name, leading to:
>> >>>
>> >>> var hTMLElement = HTMLElement()
>> >>>
>> >>> versus:
>> >>>
>> >>> var htmlElement = HtmlElement()
>> >>
>> >> Interesting. For me, it feels like the acronym should should up in
>> >> ALLCAPS or nocaps; never with just a Leadingcap. For example:
>> >>
>> >>      var htmlElement = HTMLElement()
>> >>
>> >
>> > I guess I just don’t like my function calls SHOUTing at me. :-)
>> >
>> > The leading-caps-for-acronyms style might not be particularly
>> > popular. The most prominent use I’m aware of is in the .NET
>> > frameworks.
>>
>> Peeple, please.  Not to pick nits, but these are *initialisms*, not
>> *acronyms*
>> (http://www.dailywritingtips.com/initialisms-and-acronyms/). The
>> difference matters, because there's a very good argument for using
>> different conventions for the two, i.e. Nasa and Radar (acronyms) read
>> fine while Html and Fbi and Cia (initialisms) ... don't.
>>
>> --
>> -Dave
>>
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>>

-- 
-Dave