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From: GTalbot on 28 May 2010 10:45
Hello all,

While reading this newsgroup, I remember reading that using
capitalized functionname is bad form (... or can create problems, I am
not sure). I can't remember why.

Apparently

function test() { ... } is ok

but

function Test() { ... } is not ok.

Can someone elaborate on this?

regards, Gérard
From: Ry Nohryb on 28 May 2010 10:54
On May 28, 4:45 pm, GTalbot <newsgr...(a)gtalbot.org> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> While reading this newsgroup, I remember reading that using
> capitalized functionname is bad form (... or can create problems, I am
> not sure). I can't remember why.
>
> Apparently
>
> function test() { ... } is ok
>
> but
>
> function Test() { ... } is not ok.
>
> Can someone elaborate on this?
>
> regards, Gérard

It's only a convention: if you only capitalize constructors, you can
instantly recognize them as being a constructor (and remember to put
the (often required) new in front of the call). Other than for that
reason, you can name any f() as you like, capitalized or not, it won't
do any harm, afaik.
--
Jorge.
From: Richard Cornford on 28 May 2010 10:59
On May 28, 3:45 pm, GTalbot wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> While reading this newsgroup, I remember reading that using
> capitalized functionname is bad form (... or can create
> problems, I am not sure). I can't remember why.
>
> Apparently
>
> function test() { ... } is ok
>
> but
>
> function Test() { ... } is not ok.
>
> Can someone elaborate on this?

It is style thing. It is common practice to use initial uppercase for
the names of functions that are intended to be used as constructors,
and use non-upper case initial letters on all functions/methods that
are not intended to be used as constructors. Or more generally, the
initial uppercase names are used to indicate things that are
implementing the (OO) 'class' concept in javascript.

Richard.
From: GTalbot on 28 May 2010 11:14
On 28 mai, 10:59, Richard Cornford <Rich...(a)litotes.demon.co.uk>
wrote:
> On May 28, 3:45 pm, GTalbot wrote:
>
> > Hello all,
>
> > While reading this newsgroup, I remember reading that using
> > capitalized functionname is bad form (... or can create
> > problems, I am not sure). I can't remember why.
>
> > Apparently
>
> > function test() { ... } is ok
>
> > but
>
> > function Test() { ... } is not ok.
>
> > Can someone elaborate on this?
>
> It is style thing. It is common practice to use initial uppercase for
> the names of functions that are intended to be used as constructors,
> and use non-upper case initial letters on all functions/methods that
> are not intended to be used as constructors.


Ry Nohryb and Richard Cornford: thank you for your quick and clear
answers/replies.

regards, Gérard
From: Johannes Baagoe on 28 May 2010 12:17
Richard Cornford :

> more generally, the initial uppercase names are used to indicate
> things that are implementing the (OO) 'class' concept in javascript.

I think the convention goes back to Pascal and similar early languages
that allowed the users to create new types - and that coincidentally
allowed lower case for the first time. People had to distinguish
between such types and variables, and some took the habit of doing so
by the upper or lower case of the initial letter. Similar concerns
led to similar results with typedefs in C, etc.

Later, when special functions were invented to return complex data
that is similar in structure and behaviour, it seemed logical to give
such functions a capital letter, too. "a = Foo()" and "a = new Foo()"
look and behave a lot like "Foo a".

--
Johannes
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