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List:       jakarta-commons-dev
Subject:    Re: [lang] StringUtils.subarray v/s subArray
From:       __matthewHawthorne <matth () phreaker ! net>
Date:       2003-11-30 22:36:49
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>> It seems to depend on whether we see the word "array" as a proper noun.

> Could you please elaborate what you meant by that.
> 
> In my understanding, class names rather represent common nouns, and you 
> can say, specific instances of the class represent proper nouns:
> 
> Person john = new Person();
> 
> Or, am I missing something here?
> 
> Talking about String.subSequence, if I am right, it was so named because 
> there exists a word called "subsequence" in English, which has no direct 
> bearing with "sub + sequence", thus the emphasis:
> "sub-sequence". Another example would be re-store (= store again.)

I was referring to whether we consider the word "array" to be a common 
part of language, or a specific concept to programming or something like 
that.  I don't really want to get into a whole grammatical debate 
because I'm not particularly good at grammar.

I see a classname as a proper noun.  I think it needs that emphasis 
because it's a model of something, not the real "thing" in the real 
world.  Like, in your example, I would refer to the class as *Person* 
not *person*, to emphasize that I'm talking about the class, not a real 
flesh-and-blood person.

I like subArray because of that emphasis.  An example from the numeric 
side would be: if such a concept as a "sub-number" existed, which names 
are preferred: subdouble, sublong, subint OR subDouble, subLong, subInt. 
  I'd choose the latter due to the reasons I've mentioned.

I also want to mention that I don't really care that much whether we 
choose subarray or subArray.  What's more important to me is that if we 
choose a standard with regard to this, that we make our best efforts to 
stick to it, to avoid the type of ambiguity that Sun has and continues 
to provide with regard to these types of things.


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