Re: [PATCH 00/86] replace prefixcmp() with has_prefix()

From: Christian Couder <chriscool@tuxfamily.org>
Date: Nov 12, 2013, 20:43 UTC
Message-ID: <20131112.214357.1022923291448967795.chriscool@tuxfamily.org>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqy54timsm.fsf@gitster.dls.corp.google.com>

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Show 14 quoted lines

> 
> Even though we already added has_suffix() for tail matches, it is
> not too late to rethink, as it is not in 'master' yet.
> 
> One thing I noticed is that it is probably misnamed, or at least in
> a way that invites confusion.  Can people tell which one of these is
> correct without looking at existing callsites?
> 
>         has_suffix(filename, "txt");
>         has_suffix(filename, ".txt");
> 
> The semantics of the function we have is the latter and is better
> called endswith(), I suspect.  And the corresponding function to
> check for head matches should probably be called beginswith().

I don't know if has_suffix() is confusing for a native speaker.

After a look at some languages, Python has "startwith()" and "endswith()", and Java has "startWith()" and "endsWith()".

So I agree that it is a good name. But while we are at it, why not "ends_with()" and "begins_with()"? To me using an underscore seems more consistent with what we are doing in Git.

Thanks, Christian.