Everything that follows is my preferences, but I generally agree with
Erica’s suggestions in the concrete cases. I also think the emphasis
on quasi-grammatical rules-and-roles is something of a dead-end for
design guidelines and won’t include such considerations in what
follows.
## RULES
### I. Single-Argument Functions:
#### RULES:
- general rule: don’t label the first argument
- exceptions:
- (a) the argument has a default value (`removeAll(keepCapacity: Bool = default)`)
- (b) the function acts-like a constructor (covered in your rule 2)
- (c) the “ecosystem rule” (see section III)
- (d) the semantics of the argument are non-obvious (see below)
#### REMARKS:
I’m not sure (d) actually exists, though; every concrete example I can
think up either falls under rule (b) or rule (c). It may not actually
need to be a rule (other than as, perhaps, the underlying motivation
for rules (b) and (c)).
My intent with (d) was to address a similar concern as in Erica’s
`init(truncating …)` and `init(saturating …)`: “if a reasonable reader
would be unclear which of N plausible implementation choices you are
making, you may wish to label the argument, even if you only have a
single such function”…but, again, it’s hard to find any examples for
(d) that aren’t also some mixture of (b) and/or (c).
### II. Multi-Argument Functions:
#### RULES:
- general rule: label all arguments
- exceptions:
- (a) omit the first label whenever the first argument is the
semantic focus, and the other arguments are some mix of “details,
adjustments, or modifiers”
- (b) omit labels entirely whenever argument-ordering is irrelevant to the output (see below)
#### REMARKS:
For (a), the assumption is that we have a general consensus that “in
methods for which one of the arguments is the semantic focus, that
argument should be the first argument”; this seems pretty widely
followed.
This rule seems to cover e.g. `addObserver(_:forKeyPath:)` and
`addObserver(_:selector:name:object:)` and `encodeObject(_:forKey:)`
and `present(_:animated:completion:)` (née
`presentViewController(_:animated:completion:)`), and so on.
A point to bring up is that under these rules, the “evolution” of a
name would be different: the just-so story for how
`addObserver(_:forKeyPath:)` came to be so-called is that it *began*
as `add(observer:forKeyPath:)`, but b/c the `observer` argument is the
semantic focus it "made sense to move `observer` into the method
name”; that is, the assumption is that functions like
`addObserver(_:forKeyPath:)` are considered to be exceptions to the
"base convention” and need to be justified.
Also note that "counter-examples" to rule (a) are anything for which
no one argument is easily-identifiable as the semantic focus.
EG, in a function like:
`adjudicate(plaintiff:defendant:circumstances:)` we can colorably
claim `circumstances` is a modifier-type parameter, but we don’t—and
shouldn’t!—treat either `plaintiff` or `defendant` as the
semantic-focus. If you have two focuses then you have no focus, as it
were.
For (b), the intuition is that whenever argument-order is irrelevant,
arguments should be unlabelled; thus e.g.:
- min/max: don’t label the arguments
- hypot: don’t label the arguments
- copysign: ideally, label the arguments
- atan2: ideally, label the arguments
…and so on. Note that these examples are all "free functions”; there
don’t seem to be many natural examples that *aren’t* free
functions. Also, please don’t be mislead by your familiarity with
e.g. `copysign` and/or `atan2`; they are used here to illustrate a
general principle (argument-ordering) only, but in practice such
highly-familiar “legacy functions” might be best-off given
special-case handling.
### III. Naming Functions/Ecosystem Rule
The previous sections essentially assumed the function names are
already-chosen (in line with existing conventions) and voice specific
argument-labeling preferences.
This section deals with a few changes to how function names should be chosen.
The over-arching consideration is what I’ve been calling the
“Ecosystem rule”: whenever a method a member of a “method family"—or
could foreseeably become a member of such—one should aim for
consistency in the base name, and use argument-labels as necessary;
note that method families need not *require* argument labels:
`contains(_: Point)`
`contains(_: Line)`
`contains(_: Shape)`
…but they *may* require them, as for example in the `login` function
that has already been discussed.
The “ecosystem-rule" can also be applied somewhat more-broadly;
consider the following name suggestions:
`animate(duration:animations:)`
`animate(duration:animations:completion:)`
`animate(duration:delay:options:animations:completion:)`
`animateUsingKeyFrames(duration:delay:options:animations:completion:)`
`animateUsingSpring(duration:delay:damping:initialVelocity:options:animations:completion:)`
…where the first three form an obvious family, and the next two are
obvious “cousins” of that family due to choice of base names.
A corollary of this policy is that the rule (3) suggestion—of omitting
something like `…ForIdentifier...` or `(forIdentifier:…)`—will
sometimes be overruled out of ecosystem concerns, but I suspect this
will be somewhat rare in practice.
For example, consider the following naming suggestions for the “tracks” example:
// solo method (not part of any family)
asset.trackWith(trackID)
// family
asset.allTracksWith(mediaCharacteristic: …)
asset.allTracksWith(mediaType: ...
// the below, instead of `trackWith` or `track(
asset.firstTrackWith(mediaCharacteristic: ...)
asset.firstTrackWith(mediaType: …)
…or the same again, but perhaps dropping the `With` if that’s the overall preference.
In any case, the overall goal behind the "ecosystem rule” is that
similar things should be named similarly, and when semantic
differences are small-enough it makes sense to use argument labels to
make distinctions; different base names should be for functions that
are at least a little different from each other.
## GENERAL REMARKS
Note that with the way I’ve tried to formulate these rules the Swift
standard library should largely stay as-is. In particular:
- methods without an identifiable “semantic focus” seem rare in a
standard-library context; IMHO they occur naturally, but only really
within UI/application-level code, not “basic building blocks” code
- "method families” seem somewhat unnatural in “Swift-y” code outside
of a small number of special-case scenarios (`contains`, various
`init` families, etc.); they seem more common in UI/application-level
code (e.g. for Objective-C interoperation), as default arguments cover
most of the motivating use-cases
…and most of the intent in these rules is to free up some room in the
guidelines so that application-level code can be written to the
guidelines without going through bizarre contortions (e.g. no one
would ever have *chosen* `func
dismissViewControllerAnimated(_:completion:)`, and we shouldn’t have
to chose between either (a) using equally-awkward constructs in our
own code or (b) being “non-guideline-compliant”).
## REMARKS ON RULE 3
Separately, I think rule 3 is a hair too coarse to be a good guideline as-stated.
I would split the “asking for X by name/identifier/etc.” into two cases:
- (a) asking for X by some well-known/canonical $ID (e.g., such that
it is a *major* error if no X is found for $ID)
- (b) asking for X by some identifier (without a strong expectation as
to whether or not such an X will or won’t be found)
…and at least as a code-reader:
- I have no objection to the proposed rule (3) in scenario (a)
- I find rule (3) very odd in scenario (b)
- I think very differently about scenario (a) and scenario (b), and
would thus prefer that they look different
…and that’s my thoughts, here.
On Feb 2, 2016, at 6:32 PM, Dave Abrahams via swift-evolution <swift-evolution@swift.org> wrote:
This thread is related to the review of new API guidelines, but it's not
a review thread; it's exploratory. The goal is to come up with
guidelines that:
* describe when and where to use argument labels
* require labels in many of the cases people have asked for them
* are understandable by humans
* preserve important semantics communicated by existing APIs.
Here's what I'm thinking
1. If and only if the first argument could complete a sentence*
beginning in the base name and describing the primary semantics of
the call, it gets no argument label:
a.contains(b) // b completes the phrase "a contains b"
a.mergeWith(b) // b completes the phrase "merge with b"
a.dismiss(animated: b) // "a, dismiss b" is a sentence but
// doesn't describe the semantics at all,
// thus we add a label for b.
a.moveTo(x: 300, y: 400) // "a, move to 300" is a sentence
// but doesn't describe the primary
// semantics, which are to move in both
// x and y. Thus, x gets a label.
a.readFrom(u, ofType: b) // "a, read from u" describes
// the primary semantics, so u gets no
// label. b is an
// option that tunes the primary
// semantics
[Note that this covers all the direct object cases and, I believe,
all the default argument cases too, so maybe that exception can be
dropped. We still need the exceptions for full-width type
conversions and indistinguishable peers]
Note: when there is a noun in the base name describing the role of the
first argument, we skip it in considering this criterion:
a.addObserver(b) // "a, add b" completes a sentence describing
// the semantics. "Observer" is omitted in
// making this determination.
* We could say "clause" here but I think making it an *independent*
clause doesn't rule out any important use-cases (see
https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/gram_clauses_n_phrases.html\) and at that
point, you might as well say "sentence," which is a more
universally-understood term.
2. Words that describe attributes of an *already-existing* instance
should go in the base name rather than in a label:
a.tracksHavingMediaType("Wax Cylinder") // yes
a.removeFirstTrackHavingMediaType("BetaMax") // yes
a.tracks(mediaType: "Wax Cylinder") // no
a.removeFirstTrack(havingMediaType: "BetaMax") // no
[yes, we could use "With" instead of "Having", but it's more
ambiguous]
Words that describe attributes of an instance *to be created* should
go in argument labels, rather than the base name (for parity with
initializers):
AudioTrack(mediaType: "BetaMax") // initializer
trackFactory.newTrack(mediaType: "Wax Cylinder") // yes
trackFactory.newTrackWithMediaType("Wax Cylinder") // no
3. (this one is separable) When the first argument is the *name* or
*identifier* of the subject in the base name, do not label it or
describe it in the base name.
a.transitionToScene(.GreatHall) // yes
a.transitionToSceneWithIdentifier(.GreatHall) // no
let p = someFont.glyph("propellor") // yes
let p = someFont.glyphWithName("propellor") // no
let p = someFont.glyph(name: "propellor") // no
Thoughts?
--
-Dave
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