[wp-hackers] echo and return

[Brian Meidell Andersen]

I can definitely see the advantages. I just don't like the style, I guess.
I'm an old fart when it comes to coding style at the tender age of 25. 
How sad.

I would never make a function with 12 parameters. I would probably make 
a class, then make an instance of it and have people configure it before 
they output it, like this:

<?php
$calendar->setFirstWeekDay("sunday");
$calendar->setMonth("february");
$calendar->setYear(2004);
$calendar->Show();
?>

But as I said - I'll do whatever is The Way.
Noone benefits from everyone following their old style in a group 
programming effort.

/Brian

Ryan Boren wrote:

>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
>
>
>
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