Re: [boost] [iostreams] request for advice on naming [repost]

From: Jonathan Turkanis (technews_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-07-08 12:53:02

Larry Evans wrote:
> On 07/07/2005 11:50 PM, Jonathan Turkanis wrote:
> [snip]
>> inconsistent header names:
> [snip]
>> As you can see, some contain "_filter" and some don't, and it all
>> depends on whether the header contains more than one component,
>> which can be hard to remember.
>
> It would be nice if a header file name could end in "_+.hpp" where the
> "+" is meant to suggest "more than one component".

I think some filesystems don't allow + in file names; that's why c++boost.gif
was renamed.

> Maybe just "_"
> would be close enough, so that a header named:
>
>    counter_.hpp
>
> would indicate it contains components with names starting with
> "counter_" or components having something to do with a counter.
>
> Is that any better?

I generally try to avoid trailling underscores, since they look funny to me.
Also, I'm not sure that when a header contains more than one component, their
names only differ at the end.

Using a trailing _ also forces people to remember whether a header contains more
than one component, which is something I wanted to avoid. For example,
newline.hpp contains newline_filter and newline_checker. My guess is that
newline_filter will be used much more frequently, and some people may not even
relaize that there is another filter defined in the same header.

Jonathan