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From: Simon Wright <simon@pushface.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: procedure Make_File_Gone (Name : in String);
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:28:05 +0100
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Date: 2011-07-25T18:28:05+01:00
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Adam Beneschan <adam@irvine.com> writes:

> On Jul 23, 2:08 pm, Simon Wright <si...@pushface.org> wrote:
>> "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mail...@dmitry-kazakov.de> writes:
>>
>> > On Sat, 23 Jul 2011 19:05:02 +0000 (UTC), tmo...@acm.org wrote:
>>
>> >> I'm looking for a good name for such a routine, where "good" means
>> >> short and clear to a maintenance programmer scanning the code.  Perhaps
>> >> English doesn't have a nice way of making such an imperative->declarative
>> >> phrase.
>>
>> >    procedure Delete_File (File : String; Existing : Boolean := True);
>>
>>    procedure Delete_File (File : String;
>>                           Only_If_Existing : Boolean := True);
>
> Or you could go the other way:
>
>    procedure Delete_File (File : String;
>                           OK_If_File_Doesnt_Exist : Boolean := False);
>
> The parameter name is clunky.  Still, I think I'd slightly prefer
> something along those lines because I tried to read a call that looks
> like this:
>
>    Delete_File (F, Only_If_Existing => False);
>
> I'd be scratching my head trying to figure out what it meant.  It's
> probably better to use names that mean nothing:
>
>    Delete_File (F, Glarfspoogl => False);
>
> than to use names that look like they're intended to convey meaning
> but actually are just confusing.  The former at least will force
> readers to go back and look at the documentation.  (I'm only half-
> serious here.  I don't recommending using ridiculous names like
> Glarfspoogl.)

I take your point.

  With_Exception_If_Not_Found : Boolean := True

(we could argue this one for a long time if we had nothing better to
do!)