Superficial Syntax thread: Your favorite keywords/class names etc.

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Originally Posted by Mario F.

It's been always my thought that Method and Property usage seem to focus more on the object instance since this is where those nouns make more sense, I think. Whereas member function and member variable make more sense when describing a class... particularly in C++ where the terms pointer to method or friend method don't make much sense at all.

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I heard in a python lecture that a method is a function that operates on an object and a function takes an object or a series of objects. E.g. (I will make up an example):

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:WNDCLASS.hCursor.LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW); //method, if this existed
DialogBox(hinst, MAKEINTRESOURCE(DLG_0100), NULL, (DLGPROC) DialogFunc); //Function
string.split(' ') random python example of a method (not C)

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There are probably better examples of methods in C++, but I haven't learnt it yet. Helps distinguish the difference though. As for a property, this is an example:

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WNDCLASS.lpszClassName

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I'd say objects have methods (hence when dealing with OOP I call them methods) otherwise it's a function.

But I don't like the terms, "accessor" & "mutator".

I've always liked the term "brittle." In other words, code that may work, but doesn't easily support arbitrary changes either to itself or to the structure of code around it. It's ready to snap in half like a granola bar left to dry in the desert sun.

As far as the function/method debate, I don't think it's really that important. The term "function" is already far removed from the mathematical definition of a function as a mapping from values to values. Many C and C++ "functions" serve no purpose except for their side-effects, a decidedly non-functional role.