[Bash-completion-devel] Namespace

[David Paleino]

On Tue, 03 May 2011 21:51:19 +0300, Ville Skyttä wrote:

> But let's take a step back and establish the scope of all this, maybe
> it's kind of clear but it doesn't hurt write and discuss/confirm it: my
> opinion is that we should apply a namespace prefix to all our functions
> and non-local variables.

+1

> For variables, there are two things: 1) internal ones such as the
> current $_backup_glob and various similar per-completion ones, and 2)
> ones controlling behaviour such as the ones documented in
> doc/bash_completion.txt.
> 
> For functions and internal variables we could use the same prefix (for
> example _bc_*).  But for the "external" variables I think different
> conventions should apply.  The current COMP_* is not optimal IMO because
> it's possible that they'll clash with bash's own COMP_*, so I suggest
> BASHCOMP_* for them.

+1 for BASHCOMP, it's even shorter than BASH_COMPLETION_ which we used
somewhere in the code up to now.

> And one important thing we should be planning for is considering what is
> the bash-completion "API", i.e. what external completion authors can use
> if they like and we'll try to keep that stuff stable, and what are
> private things not intended to be used outside bash-completion proper
> and which may change/disappear pretty much anytime.  I think these
> deserve different namespaces, for example __bc_* or for the private ones
> and _bc_* for the API ones, or something that makes the difference even
> more visible such as _BC_* for the API ones.  (All functions that are
> used as actual top level completion functions for commands would
> probably be private.)

I'd prefer _BC_*.

Also documenting them (and maybe putting doc on the website too) would be a
nice addition.

> Agreed/disagreed/other considerations?

Agreed on all the points. :)

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