From: dblack@...
Date: 2002-09-25T23:23:45+09:00
Subject: Re: select and select

Hi --

On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, Harry Ohlsen wrote:

> > 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 pedant credentials are pretty good (I get paid to do it :-) but I
don't think "lookup" is in the same category of illegitimacy as
"valuesat".  "lookup" has a huge amount of currency; it's not a
coinage.  In fact, it's even in dictionary.com's dictionary, though
I'm not one to point to inclusion in a dictionary as a slam-dunk
(or slamdunk :-) argument.

Or is the problem that lookup is (or should be) only the noun form,
while the method name should be verb-ish?

> My pet peeve in this regard is "login" versus "log in" :-(.

I'll take either of those over "logon"... :-)  I guess if you don't
have the noun "login", you have to say, "There were a lot of logs in
on the system yesterday."  :-)


David

-- 
David Alan Black                      | Register for RubyConf 2002!
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