[Python-ideas] What about allowing '?' in method names?

[Tennessee Leeuwenburg]

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 5:50 PM, Xavier Ho <contact at xavierho.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Tennessee Leeuwenburg <
> tleeuwenburg at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> this could be nicer than prefixing things with is, and makes things
>> clearer in some cases, e.g.
>>
>> def shouldSomethingHappenFlag(self, context):
>>    if 'relevant' in context:
>>      return True
>>
>>    return False
>>
>> vs
>>
>> def shouldSomethingHappen?(self, context):
>>   if 'relevant' in context:
>>     return True
>>   return False
>>
>> I just think it looks nicer, and is a good hint that a true/false or other
>> kind of flag is likely to come back.
>>
>
> What about
>
> hasSomethingHappened(self, context)
>
> or
>
> isRelevant(self, context)
>
> Either way.. I think ? has better uses though.
>

Well, probably everyone will want to do things differently. Not all method
names work with an 'is' stuck on the front, or a 'Flag' stuck on the end...
I'm trying out an idiom of ending True/False returners with 'Q', i.e.
self.isSomethingTheCaseQ() or self.shouldSomethingHappenQ() or
self.getSomeFlagQ()... I find that's reasonably aesthetically pleasing, and
is a good hint about what the method is for.

Also, when working with someone else's code, they may already has isFoo()
style methods which don't return flags.

So Q is good enough for me, but ? would be even better, for me.

Cheers,
-T
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