Monday, March 29, 2010

Re: No more 8-character limit?

On Mon, 29 Mar 2010, Yakov wrote:

> On Mar 28, 6:28 pm, "Benjamin R. Haskell" <v...@benizi.com> wrote:
> > Andy Wokula just uploaded what seems like a useful plugin called
> > 'motpat'.  
>
> I don't think short names of plugins come from 8.3, there is different
> reason. See below.

The help text itself claimed it was for "compatibility with old Windows
versions". Otherwise, there's no reason to pick 8.


> > Months from now, there's no way I'd remember 'motpat' comes from
>
> You don't need to remember the precise name. There is google.

That's ridiculous. Figuring out what a plugin does shouldn't require a
search engine. I'm talking about the name to functionality mapping, not
vice versa. (I have 'motpat'. What does 'motpat' do?)


> If you remember enough keywords (motion, mappings, pattern), then
> typing "vim" + "plugin" + keywords into google will take you to
> motpat.vim faster than you'd expect.

If I knew those keywords, Google could just as easily lead me to
flibbyDibbyDoo.vim if the plugin's description were the same as
motpat.vim. The name doesn't assist in the search; the name assists in
the reverse (Plugin called XYZ.vim has functionality associated with X,
Y, and Z).

Besides, the need for the plugin arose from (paraphrasing): "w doesn't
move over word characters in a natural way" (none of which points toward
'plugin', 'mappings', or 'pattern')


> Long name ? Using long name won't guaranee one remembers its
> precisely.
> Was is MotionMappingsByPattern.vim ?
> Or CreateMotionMappingsByPattern.vim ?
> Or MotionMapsPattern.vim ?
> The longer name, the more possibilities.

*ALL* of those are better than 'motpat'. If I've installed it already,
I can clearly remember what the plugin does by its name. If someone
tells me I should install MotionMappingsByPattern.vim, it's obvious that
it does something related to 'motion', 'mappings', and 'patterns'.

Even motionpattern.vim (what first came to mind) is much better.


> I, personally, don't beleive I'm better at remembering verbatim long
> names than at remembering short names.

It's not the length -- it's the lack of abbreviation. And memorability
isn't the key goal anyway.


> If you want to see long mnemonic name in your ~/.vimrc directory, you
> can create a symlink locally, using whatever you remember well.
>
> I wrote plugins myself. I beleive short names have nothing to do with
> 8.3. When debugging and writing and polishing the plugin, author
> types its name thousands of times. So there is tendency to shorten the
> name, just for typing convenience.

Turn on autocompletion (Vim and/or shell). 'MotionMappingsByPattern'
just took me four keystrokes to type: M o t <Tab> (Six, counting the
surrounding single-quotes.)


> Symlinks are your friends for local convenience, and google - for
> search.

Names longer than 8 characters are everyone's friend for global
convenience.

--
Best,
Ben

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