From: Devin Mullins <twifkak@...>
Date: 2005-07-16T08:19:14+09:00
Subject: Re: difference?

Daniel Brockman wrote:

>It's customary not to prefix predicates by `is_'.
>For instance, it's `empty?', not `is_empty?'; `frozen?',
>not `is_frozen?'; `finite?', not `is_finite?', etc.
>
>   foo.a? Foo
>
>On the other hand, that doesn't read very well. :-)
>
>Actually, I guess you could argue that the no-`is_' convention
>doesn't apply for parameterized methods.
>  
>
Well, is_empty? is different from is_a?, in that "a" is not a property 
of the object -- rather, it's just part of a sentence-like phrase. I 
think the no "is_" convention just came about because it was three 
characters that communicated nothing, and hence were unnecessary. As you 
saw, #a? looks weird, so the "is_" communicates something important in 
this case.

But really, I don't care which you prefer. (No offense. :) I don't have 
any problem with using is_a?, as it just plain looks more readable to 
me. (It doesn't hurt that it's shorter, too. :P)

Devin