[GRASS-dev] GRASS C function names

[Glynn Clements]

Soeren Gebbert wrote:

> i have a question about the function naming guidline of GRASS.
> I would like to add a guidline to the SUBMITTING file.
> 
> But the problem is that we have two naming conventions
> for library functions  in GRASS.
> The common convention is: G_fatal_error(), to place a "_" between the function description strings,
> but within the G3D library a different convention was used: G3d_fatalError().
> 
> Personally i like the function name convention of the G3D lib, because this 
> convention is used in other libraries i am programming with and i think its better readable. 
> So i named all the functions in my r3.* modules like the G3D lib standard.
> 
> But i would like to see a uniform programming standard/API within GRASS, so what to do?
> 
> Should the G3D library API be an exception and all the user defined function names should use
> the common API (G_name_name), or should the module developer decide on his own what convention to use?

All of the core libraries use underscores rather than mixed case. The
only libraries which use mixed case are third-party add-ons which were
developed separately then incorporated into GRASS later.

FWIW, I strongly prefer underscores; it's also the official GNU naming
convention.

> Or should we/i rename all G3D function names to meet the common convention?
> Well thats not impossible, but a huge amount of work (the testing and the docs).

I don't consider renaming to be a priority. It might be worth doing if
the library was undergoing a major overhaul, but otherwise there are
better uses of developer time.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>