In my own code, I usually use a 'mb' prefix with camelCase, like so: case mbStr of Just str -> ... Nothing -> ... But I agree that it doesn't always look very nice. I'm curious what others do. On Apr 22, 2011, at 1:14 PM, Evan Laforge wrote:
Here's a simple issue that's been with me for a while. As do many people, I use plural variable names for lists, so if a Block as called 'block' then [Block] is 'blocks'.
The other pattern that comes up a lot is 'Maybe Block'. When I have to name it, I call it 'maybe_block', e.g.
maybe_block <- lookup something case maybe_block of Just block -> ...
However, this maybe_ prefix is rather long and unwieldy. I have considered things like 'm' or 'mb' but they don't suggest Maybe to me. An 'm' prefix or suffix is already implying 'monad'. If '?' were allowed in identifiers I could use it as a suffix. I could just append 'q' and get used to it... lispers did it with 'p' after all. I suppose 'mby' could be ok, but for some reason it just looks ugly to me. 'opt' looks ok, I suppose, but 'optional' doesn't cover the full range of Maybe's usage (i.e. it's strange to call a failed lookup result "optional"). Does anyone else have a nice convention for this? Hopefully something short but intuitive and nicely reading like the plural convention?
_______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe