From: "mame (Yusuke Endoh)" Date: 2013-02-17T15:22:28+09:00 Subject: [ruby-core:52355] [ruby-trunk - Feature #7644] In refinements, change "using" keyword to a less generic word. Issue #7644 has been updated by mame (Yusuke Endoh). Obviously too late for 2.X ;-( You had to raise your voice during the preview period. -- Yusuke Endoh ---------------------------------------- Feature #7644: In refinements, change "using" keyword to a less generic word. https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/7644#change-36401 Author: boris_stitnicky (Boris Stitnicky) Status: Assigned Priority: Normal Assignee: matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto) Category: Target version: Next Major The upcoming feature of refinements is bringing two new keyords: "refine Something" and "using Something". While I am definitely late to come up with this, I realized that due to natural linguistic reasons, keyword "using" should be replaced another word. This suggestion is not about functionality, only about the keyword choice. I firmly believe that "using", while tempting and beautiful, is ultimately wrong keyword choice, imposing undue strain on English speaking about code in comments, documentation, and all developer communication. Rationale: Ruby keywords, especially verbs (include, extend, raise, return, yield, ...) and nouns (class, module, ...) constrain speaking about code. One eg. cannot freely speak about modules in the general sense ("My program has modular structure consisting of three main modules blah blah..."), due to the danger of confusion that we are speaking about three Module instances. This has to be circumvented by saying eg. "My program consists of three main orthogonal parts blah blah..."). Now if Ruby 2.1 would introduce keyword "part", we would have to reformulate the sentence to eg. "My program consists of three main independent subprograms..." What am I getting at is, that PLEEEASE don't take "use", "using", "usage" etc. away from meeee! I don't want write poetry in the documentation! Suggested solution: One simple solution would be to replace the participle "using Something" by a keyword selected from eg. prepositions or adverbs, such as "with Something". If verb or noun is desired, it should not constrain natural speech too much, such as "gimmick Something", or "delve Something". -- http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/