From: Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@...>
Date: 2002-09-25T14:43:57+09:00
Subject: Re: select and select


----- Original Message -----
From: "Harry Ohlsen" <harryo@zip.com.au>


> > In another thread, which he accidentally created, Hugh suggested #lookup
> > which I think is very worthy.
>
> Since we're nit-picking ... don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing
> wrong with that !! ... I think it should be #look_up, since "lookup" is not a
> word (well, not in English, anyway), and never will be, no matter how many
> times programmers try to make it one.
>
> I suggest this in the same way I think other people would suggest #values_at
> rather than #valuesat.
>
> My pet peeve in this regard is "login" versus "log in" :-(.
>
> Yours, pedantically,
>
> Harry O.

I myself am a pedant, and always appreciate advice from other pedants.  I would
not have considered #lookup to be a problem, in fact I didn't give it any
thought, because "lookup" to me suggests a search, whereas "look up" suggest
gazing at the sky or the ceiling, depending on one's location.

Anyway, I went to dictionary.com, and guess what?  Their search box is labelled
"Look up:"!!!

So I rest your case.

I still prefer #lookup, because I dislike underscores in built-in method names.
(Rationale: aesthetic, but to me, something "in the language" should be
distilled into a single word.  Keywords, for example.)

Sorry for boring the 97% of people who couldn't care less about all this!

Gavin