[swift-evolution] ed/ing, InPlace, Set/SetAlgebra naming resolution

[Dave Abrahams]

on Thu Feb 11 2016, Jim Hillhouse <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:

> Are these function names being based on the present participle of each verb, e.g. 'union' and 'intersect'? 
>
> The present participle of 'union' is technically speaking,
> 'unioning'. 

Technically speaking, I'm pretty sure you can't have a participle of
anything that isn't a verb, and “union” isn't one AFAICT.

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/150843/verb-for-to-form-the-union-of-a-and-b

> But it is not widely used. In fact, in both Pages and Word, 'unioning'
> is flagged as a misspelling of 'union'.
>
> The present participle of 'intersect' is 'intersecting';
> 'intersection' is a noun.
>
> As currently presented, the use of 'union' and 'intersection' are a
> mixing of rarely used though correct present participle verb tense and
> a noun. I think it would be better to recognize that 'union' and
> 'intersection' are two universally used mathematical terms and to
> forego the suggested verb tense gymnastics.
>
> Jim
>
> jimhillhouse at me.com
> 512-484-9489
>
> Sent from Jim's iPhone
>
>> On Feb 11, 2016, at 12:09 PM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution
>> <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>> 
>> MHO: +1 on the intention of using less unwieldy names, but -1 on the
>> specific solution. I fear that the current solution has some
>> inexplicable inconsistencies and some Englishing which verges, again
>> MHO, on Hungarianisms that others have mentioned are to be
>> explicitly avoided.
>> 
>> For example, why is it intersection() but unioning()? Surely it
>> should be either intersecting() and unioning() or intersection() and
>> union()? Also, I understand that there's precedent elsewhere and
>> that uniting() is not a good counterpart to union(), but unioning()
>> is a pretty unsavory mangling of the noun. And then we have
>> exclusiveOring(), which is just not English.
>> 
>>> On Thu, Feb 11, 2016 at 11:38 AM Dave Abrahams via swift-evolution
>>> <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi All,
>>> 
>>> The API guidelines working group took up the issue of the InPlace suffix
>>> yesterday, and decided that it was not to be used anywhere in the
>>> standard library.  We are planning to apply the changes shown here
>>> <https://gist.github.com/dabrahams/d872556291a3cb797bd5> to the API of
>>> SetAlgebra (and consequently Set) to make it conform to the guidelines
>>> under development.
>>> 
>>> Comments welcome as usual,
>>> 
>>> --
>>> -Dave
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> swift-evolution mailing list
>>> swift-evolution at swift.org
>>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
>> _______________________________________________
>> swift-evolution mailing list
>> swift-evolution at swift.org
>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution
> _______________________________________________
> swift-evolution mailing list
> swift-evolution at swift.org
> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-evolution

-- 
-Dave