[wp-hackers] echo and return

[Ryan Boren]

On Mon, 2004-07-26 at 10:18 -0700, Kitty wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-07-26 at 14:53 +0200, Brian Meidell wrote:
> > About the url encoded parameter lists, though:
> > Since user friendliness seems to be an issue (an approach I agree with), 
> > I can't understand why we would go with url encoded argument strings.
> > 
> > I can't think of anything much more user hostile than asking the user 
> > not only learn the parameters for the method, but also the name of the 
> > parameters, and then try to get the encoding right.
> > 
> > I will would be shaken at my foundation if users weren't more confused 
> > by url encoded parameter lists than either $echo parameters or double 
> > functions.
> 
> Prepare to have your foundation shaken. 
> 
> One of my plugins, "Show Categories" is pretty widely used. If someone
> wants a mini-blog in a side bar, they either use this, or Matt's asides.
> Somewhere around the second release, I was was in param list hell. So I
> went to the 'url' style param list. 
> 
> I've not had *one* support request/feedback asking how to use it! And
> with the nature of the plugin you *have to* pass params. 
> 
> Some of the functions that most widely modified in #menu also take 'url'
> params, and tend not to be a problem for users. It's a fairly intuitive
> way of passing params, believe it or not. The users can see exactly what
> they're setting, and don't have to worry about the positional aspect.
> 
> So don't underestimate the users. Don't develop for "grandma," as a lot
> of people in the open source world are. I try an stick with this
> assumption:
> "Anyone interested in customising their blog will be able to digest the
> the few technical bits that are needed to make things work. So document
> accordingly."

Yep.  I personally like named parameters.  The main reason we use them
in WP is to make it possible to change the default value of parameter
number 12 without having to set values for parameters 1 - 11.  Further,
time and time again I see reports in the forums from people who tried to
do "foo=bar" in a template tag.  Perhaps html tag attributes and query
strings have people thinking in terms of named parameters.

Ryan