Comments on: Selectors API Method Names: selectElement() and selectAllElements()

By: LKM

LKM — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:30:53 +0000

I think longer, more descriptive names are generally better than shorter, less “clear” names.

By: Travis Wilson

Travis Wilson — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:20:26 +0000

I would love to see a study which demonstrates that a shorter name “improves the readability of the source code”. My entire body of experience suggests the opposite.

Also, if you’re spending most of your development time typing, you’re doing something wrong anyway. Do you really think you waste more than a few minutes a day typing long names instead of short ones?

By: Dean Edwards

Dean Edwards — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:06:37 +0000

I just got a response from Lachlan:

[quote]
I got overruled! :-( We ended up holding a working group vote and querySelector/querySelectorAll won.

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webapi/2007Aug/0066.html
http://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/38482/selectorsNames/results
[/quote]

By: Dean Edwards

Dean Edwards — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:05:20 +0000

@David – it looks like you are right. I’ve emailed Lachlan for a final clarification. Still, they can always change their minds again..

By: David HÃ¥sÃ¤ther

David HÃ¥sÃ¤ther — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:32:43 +0000

@Dean: nope, the names were later changed, see http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webapi/2007Aug/0067.html :-)

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:10:08 +0000

s/tomb/tome/

By: Dean Edwards

Dean Edwards — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:09:41 +0000

@David – the spec you link to is from 2006. The final names are selectElement() and selectAllElements().

By: Venkat

Venkat — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:56:07 +0000

Does Microsoft/IE going to support them?

By: David HÃ¥sÃ¤ther

David HÃ¥sÃ¤ther — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:43:51 +0000

Note that the names have once again been changed since the linked working draft. It’s now querySelector() and querySelectorAll(), see http://dev.w3.org/2006/webapi/selectors-api/Overview.html