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

Fri Feb 12 00:09:49 CST 2016

Inadvertent send from my iPhone. :-/ 

> On Feb 11, 2016, at 7:29 PM, Dave Abrahams via swift-evolution <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
> 
>> On Thu Feb 11 2016, James Hillhouse IV <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>> But lo and behold, if you go back to an older version of Webster’s,
>> apparently the 1917 edition if Wiktionary is to be believed, it turns
>> out that ‘union’ was both a noun and a verb and therefore at least in
>> that era’s usage had a past participle.
>> 
>> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/union#English <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/union#English>
>> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unioning <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unioning>
> 
> I'm just gonna smile now.  :-)

Dave, I can see that the Oxford English Dictionary is more your speed, so here’s its link to the verb ‘union’, along with its past participle ‘unioning’, in OED (sadly, behind a paywall),

http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/214680?redirectedFrom=Unioning+#eid <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/214680?redirectedFrom=Unioning+#eid>

Now we’re both smiling and all of us better educated about the word ‘union’.  :-)

>> The reason I commented on ‘union’ as a verb was because, with
>> ‘unioning’ proposed in SetAlgebra, I figured someone in the Swift
>> group must have been a fan of older verb-form usage of ‘union’.
> 
> Yep, someone must've. ;-)

Well, now I’m just relieved 'intersectioning’ wasn’t proposed. ;-)

This entertaining back-and-forth aside, none of this makes ‘unioning’ any more palatable as a replacement for ‘union’. From what I can see, the names suggested by others in place of ‘unioning’ such as ‘unite’, ‘unionize’, et cetera would be an improvement. 

>> That’s what I get for basing my comment on ‘Wiki’-anything.
>> 
>>> On Feb 11, 2016, at 5:05 PM, Dave Abrahams via swift-evolution
>>> <swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> on Thu Feb 11 2016, Jim Hillhouse
>>> <swift-evolution at swift.org
>>> <mailto: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
>>> <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
>>>>>> 
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>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> -Dave
>>> 
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> 
> -- 
> -Dave
> 
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