Re: Procedure naming conventions (WAS: Validate client name)

I'm not sure I agree that passing data structures is a globally bad thing - having done enough C programming where structs are passed all the time. But if this is to be a general-purpose thing, then a format parameter is necessary - or else make the first element have the format - another technique.

I am in the midst of writing up some procedures that process a set of fields of the same nature - easily handled as an array - but I have to use a DS to get these fields into an array - they span across 5 columns of a table - so I pass the DS. But this discussion just let me realize I could pass only the array subfield of the DS .

Now on the other hand, since I am declaring the DS as based in an include member, making a change is less onerous, seems to me.

Food for thought!! But I want some breakfast instead!

Vern

Charles Wilt wrote:

I believe it's been discussed before, but might as well reiterate...

Passing DS's to your procedures instead of individual parameters is not a
generally considered a good thing.

By doing so you're giving up some of the flexibility and benefits of
procedures along with making maintenance difficult.

You can at least get some of the maintainability back by taking a page from
IBM's book and passing addition parameters that till you what format the DS
is using. This way, if you need to add some parameters, you can do so
without having to recompile everything using it.

As far as your three char abbreviation standard....

I'd much prefer AcquireClientsWifesSistersDogsName()....

With WDSC, you'd only have to type 3 or 4 characters of either name, so why
not use the longer one?

I will sometimes use well known and common abbreviations, but to require
every procedure to be made up of 3-char abbreviations? Not a chance.


Charles

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 4:26 AM, David FOXWELL <David.FOXWELL@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

I get PTSD with long names, but I'll explain why :

We started off with this kind of prodedure naming :

AcqCltNam
ACltNo

Meaning Acquire client name, with the client number as a parameter. Prefix
A is reserved for parameters.
All procedures has 3, 3, 3 abreviation format. Parameters 3 + 2 characters.

Then, a bright spark dreamt up using DS as one input parameter and one
output parameter.

So we'd always have this format :

AcqCltNam ( AcqCltNamInDS : AcqCltNamOutDS )

The zones of the DS continued to follow the parameter convention, so you'd
end up with a zone named :

AcqCltNamInDS.ACltNo which identifies the client number for input to the
procedure.

As people discovered the ... Extender, they started putting whole sentences
as the procedure name, but still with the same kind of abreviations, for
example :

Acquire the client's wife's sister's dog's name might give you :

AcqCltWifSisDogNamInDS.ACltNo.

Hence my PTSD.

-----Message d'origine-----
De : rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] De la part de Vern Hamberg
Envoyé : mardi 23 juin 2009 17:52
À : RPG programming on the IBM i / System i
Objet : Re: Procedure naming conventions (WAS: Validate client name)

David

Had to look up PTSD, then almost had to get a mop for my keyboard.

Thx
Vern

David Gibbs wrote:

DeLong, Eric wrote:

Good for you! Keep your procedures short and on-point.

Seconded!

Naming conventions, like all standards, vary from shop to shop.
Personally, I never liked aaannn type conventions, since

the numeric

component tells you precisely NOTHING about what this

procedure does.

I like to choose names that seem to make sense when you

read them in

code, like "Clt_NameIsValid" and "Com_NameIsValid". In use, your
code reads like a book:

I agree in general ... although I prefer to go with a more

'java-esque' mode ... so I'll have the major 'object' of my
procedure as the first part ... and then the method as the
2nd part. For instance: for something that checks to see if
an issue number is valid ... "Issue_isValid(issueNum)" or
"Issue_setState(issueNum, newState)".

I abhor short names and numbered names ... for the same

reasons Eric mentioned ... with the added reason that it
harkens back to the dark ages of short variable names ...
which has been known to cause PTSD type responses in some programmers.

david

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