Moshe Weitzman wrote:
this thread started with 2 successive messages filled with juicy technical details aimed at speeding up core drupal. it makes zero sense to talk about variable names at this stage. Then I'll branch the thread so it will make sense.
As a module maintainer and former clueless noob on Drupal I believe that the variable and hook names used are important to facilitating developer adoption. I am coming up on two years of working within Drupal and I still keep discovering new hooks, nooks and crannies where the interface names didn't indicate what I would use the hook for. One could argue that this is because I'm slow or don't "get it". I won't, but it is entirely possible. :) I'll argue that it shows the richness of Drupal. I am repeatedly impressed. Core performance is important. Please don't forget that many of the fantastic improvements you all are working on are used in the context of sites with non-core modules, and it takes time on our part (the somewhat involved module maintainer crowd) to rework our modules to match the latest and greatest APIs. I subscribe to this development list because I've found it is the most effective way to understand the changes that are pending. 5.0 adoption will be slowed while modules are ported to it. Making that easier is important. If I saw something called "hook_signal()" when browsing the hook summary portion of the API I would not see immediate relevance to me - I don't think it communicates the intended meaning. My *nix C background would have me wondering why a php script needed a signal handler. In stylistic terms I too prefer hook_whatever_function() over hook_with_a_massive_switch_on($op). I do agree that it is not clear when to return some tidbit for display and when to effect state but not return a value. Hooks with switches do not imply "no return value" to me. Drupal is a wonderful development platform. One of my challenges with it continues to be why I would use a particular hook and where. How is easy to glean from the golden code. Hook names aid with the why and where. Scott -- *Scott McLewin* www.folkjam.org find jams. post jams. play well with others. <http://www.folkjam.org>