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RE: "test if" vs. "determine whether" - for API function descriptions ?
Subject:RE: "test if" vs. "determine whether" - for API function descriptions ? From:Rebecca Officer <Rebecca -dot- Officer -at- alliedtelesis -dot- co -dot- nz> To:Monique Semp <monique -dot- semp -at- earthlink -dot- net>, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com> Date:Tue, 5 Jan 2016 21:29:26 +0000
Personally, I like "indicates whether..."
Happy new year!
Rebecca
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+rebecca -dot- officer=alliedtelesis -dot- co -dot- nz -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+rebecca -dot- officer=alliedtelesis -dot- co -dot- nz -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Monique Semp
Sent: Wednesday, 6 January 2016 8:51 a.m.
To: Robert Lauriston
Cc: TechWR-L
Subject: Re: "test if" vs. "determine whether" - for API function descriptions ?
> My default phrasing is "returns TRUE if ...."
Ah, but the issue again is inconsistency. Some functions directly return TRUE/FALSE, but many others return a higher-level function-status-ok value, and return the condition's TRUE/FALSE through a function call parameter.
So "returns..." won't work in these situations, and we're back to using "test if" or "determine whether", or some such thing.
Certainly the ideal would be a coding standard that all engineers follow, and the standard would say how to name functions of this sort and how to return the value. But that's not likely to be followed even if implemented.
-Monique
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