From: Trans <transfire@...>
Date: 2008-04-25T10:21:15+09:00
Subject: Re: Is there any nomenclature for private methods?



On Apr 24, 7:49 pm, Iņaki Baz Castillo <i...@aliax.net> wrote:
> Hi, I don't like the way of declaring publi and private methods since it's not
> really clear. AFAIK there are you ways:
>
> 1)
> class C
>         def public_1
>         end
>
>         def public_2
>         end
>
>         private:
>         def private_1
>         end
>
>         public:
>         def public_3
> end
>
> or:
>
> 2)
> class C
>         def public_1
>         end
>
>         def public_2
>         end
>
>         def private_1
>         end
>
>         def public_3
>
>         private :private_1
> end

One way is do it immediately after the method. E.g.

         def private_1
         end
         private :private_1

         def public_3
         end

I've seen other coders use the declarations before every single method
regardless

         public
         def public_2
         end

         private
         def private_1
         end

         public
         def public_3
         end


I agree that these declarations are one of the "sore-eyes" of Ruby,
but what else can be done? Matz has always seemed against allowing:

  private def foo()
  end

In many ways it's really not important though. A more Ruby-esque way
in my opinion is to just make them all public and document them
appropriately. There is the exception of method_missing's behavior
however.

> I prefer 2) but until the end of class it's not easy to know if a method is
> public or private/protected. So i'm thinking about use a special nomenclature
> for private methods, for example:
>
>         def _private_1
>
> Is there any "standar" for this? I've seen lost of ethods called "__xxxx__"
> or "_xxxxx" but not sure the reason of that name.

An initial underscore or double underscore basically indicates
"special/avoid overwrite" --meaning it's meant to reduce the
likelihood that someone else might define a method/attribute of the
same name. The most common occurrence is __send__.

T.