Re: [rules-dev] accumulate to acc - Don't call it acc(umulate)

Op 20-08-11 00:42, Mark Proctor schreef: > On 19/08/2011 12:42, Geoffrey De Smet wrote: >> "Good programmers appreciate what you put in, >> Great programmers appreciate what you leave out " >> -- Josh Bloch >> >> I also believe that having 2 accumulates is just going to bring >> confusion and complexity. > Over time we'll deprecate the old accumulate. But we must evolve the > language to improve it, it's not easier as there is no one to copy for > this, it's virgin territory. That means we can't be afraid to try > things, and change them if think we can improve it. > > Mark I am not against adding new features to the language. (*) But don't call it "acc" or "accumulate", that will just confuse everyone.

Call it "gather", collect, hoard, amass, pileUp, cumulate, conglomerate, ... anything but accumulate or an abbreviation. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/accumulate *Using the same term for 2 different things greatly disrupts communication (= API, manual, code readability, ...).* The 2 WorkingMemory (= same term for 2 different things) are still causing confusion: org.drools.WorkingMemory org.drools.runtime.rule.WorkingMemory You can even mix them in your code (several planner examples did that for a couple of years before I noticed it). Let's investigate ways to clean that up first? For example: move the old one to drools-core-legacy-api already, before we completely remove it. With kind regards, Geoffrey De Smet (*) I do believe we need a more future proof system of adding keywords and features. I see 2 alternatives: A) Specify a drlModel version in the DRL. This allows backwards incompatible changes between drlModel versions, but new drools jars should still support the last 3 drlModel versions. This is similar to: -- pom.xml's <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion> B) Find a way to reserve keywords. -- By having to import the keywords? import keyword org.drools.parser.acc; // I can now use acc in my rules import keyword org.drools.parser.thenElse; // I can now use thenElse in my rules -- By prefixing the keywords with a reserved character. For example: @acc, @thenElse or #acc, #thenElse -- Like Ceylon, by layout (probably not possible): "Note also that annotations like doc, by, see, and deprecated aren't keywords. They're just ordinary identifiers. The same is true for annotations which are part of the language definition: abstract, variable, shared, formal, actual, and friends. On the other hand, void is a keyword. " -- _______________________________________________ rules-dev mailing list rules-dev(a)lists.jboss.org https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/rules-dev