Re: Naming conventions

[tmoran@acm.org]

> Coming from C++, what I used to think of as a class (a type and its
> associated methods) is now roughly equivalent to a package.
  No no!  Abjure such incorrect ideas!  An Ada "type ...  is ..."
and its associated ("primitive") methods is indeed a type.  A package
is at a higher level.  It may have no types at all (consider a
trigonometry function library), just one type, a couple of highly
related types, or even private types for internal use only.  Thus a
single package might contain a root bitmap type as well as child
Monochrome, VGA, Truecolor, etc types.  Or it might have both Socket
and Server types.

> I've been appending '_Type' to the package names, making names like
> Vector_Type, but I don't think that is the Right Thing(TM).
  Definitely not the Right Thing.  Try a package named Sound with
a type named Clip_Type and procedures
Play(X : in Clip_Type)
Record(X : out Clip_Type; Time : in Duration);
  Perhaps you also have a second package named Video with its own
Clip_Type, Play, and Record.
  Then when you use the packages you will have things like
Oh_Tannenbaum,
Noise_In_The_Night : Sound.Clip_Type;
Ghost_Picture : Video.Clip_Type;
  ...
Sound.Play(Oh_Tannenbaum);
  ...
if Motion_Detected then
  Sound.Record(Noise_In_The_Night, 60.0);
  Video.Record(Ghost_Picture, 60.0);
end if;

> and I've seen a little bit of calling the type simply Instance or Object.
  An instance or object is a single manifestation of a particular type.
eg, Apple_Count, Orange_Count, Back_Camera, or Front_Camera in
Apple_Count,
Orange_Count : Integer;
Back_Camera, Front_Camera : Security_Camera_Type;

>http://www.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/ifi/ps/ada-doc/style_guide/cover.html
I think that's the "Ada Quality and Style" guide, which is good, and
which will not, I think, lead you astray (although I can't seem to
connect to the web site at the moment).