pseudo-namespacing in JavaScript

[Peter Michaux]

[from <URL: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.javascript/msg/825bb682f5f456a5>]

On Feb 18, 11:02 pm, David Mark <[e-mail]:

On Feb 19, 1:14 am, Peter Michaux <[e-mail]:

Actually I think that FORK_addListener is less likely to be clobbered
than FORK. It's all a crap shoot with this single global namespace

But if you have hundreds of targets instead of one, then the
probability of collisions is increased. I do see your point that
"FORKINGLEAVETHISALONE" would be a less likely candidate for an
overwrite.

I've been thinking about this more for a library API.

prefix namespacing

FORK_addListener

vs.

object namespacing

FORK.addListener

It seems only one level of namespacing is every necessary for a
library. If that is the case why use an object for this namespacing
than just a prefix? Are there any useful benefits?

Accessing FORK_addListener is faster than accessing FORK.addListener.
I did do some tests on this sort of thing and I can resurrect the
results if anyone is interested. The important impression I was left
with was that doing tens or hundreds of thousands of identifier
resolutions were in the range of 40 to 60 ms. I would say speed is not
really a deciding factor.

Looping over the API properties of the library is easier but I don't
know why I would need to do that. I never have done that. With the
prefix version it is possible to loop over the properties of the
global object and do a regexp test on the property name. It wouldn't
be quite as fast but it wouldn't be brutal.

I suppose it does simulate Java namespacing syntax but that is hardly
a reason to do anything.

How did the object namespacing become so popular? Is it because the
MM_ functions were so badly written and prefix namespacing got a bad
reputation?

Peter

[Randy Webb]

Peter Michaux said the following on 2/22/2008 2:38 AM:

On Feb 21, 10:34 pm, RobG <[e-mail]:

>On Feb 22, 3:27 pm, Peter Michaux <[e-mail]:

[snip]

>>prefix namespacing
FORK_addListener
vs.
object namespacing
FORK.addListener
It seems only one level of namespacing is every necessary for a
library. If that is the case why use an object for this namespacing
than just a prefix? Are there any useful benefits?

Probably none, it just looks neater to me to use myNs.foo than
MYNS_foo.

I agree the dot does look a little nicer but...

I have never had the need to worry about namespacing as I don't use much
third party software and that is the only time I think it really
matters. I think the "global namespace pollution" is overplayed a lot.
Given the choice between FORK_addListener and FORK.addListener, I would
use the dot notation because I am lazy and it is easier to type a . than
it is to type a _ for me. Fewer fingers to use at once :)
--
Randy
Chance Favors The Prepared Mind
comp.lang.javascript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq/index.html
Javascript Best Practices - http://www.JavascriptToolbox.com/bestpractices/

[dhtml]

On Feb 24, 11:51 am, "Richard Cornford" <[e-mail]>
wrote:

dhtml wrote:

On Feb 23, 10:03 am, Richard Cornford wrote:

dhtml wrote:
On Feb 22, 5:31 am, Richard Cornford wrote:
Peter Michaux wrote:

[snip]

I don't want to talk about it much,

Uh huh.

and I can think of many better People to

talk about it with in the event that I did (and some worse, e.g. VK).

What makes a person better than another? Feel free to base your answer
on criterion of your choice, e.g. existential, ethical.

[snip]

We've got at least three different things in this thread, including
namespacing, variable declaration, and your project (150k lines js).
I'll come back to those.

Garrett

Richard.

[Richard Cornford]

dhtml wrote:

On Feb 24, 11:51 am, Richard Cornford wrote:

<snip - attributions for material not quoted here>

[snip]

>I don't want to talk about it much,

Uh huh.

and I can think of many better People to

>talk about it with in the event that I did (and
some worse, e.g. VK).

What makes a person better than another?

The likely hood that something substantial or conclusive will come out of
the exchange. Some people can make observations, devise tests and apply
reasoning, in which interesting truths are revealed, while at the other end
of the spectrum there a people who will just make a noise to no purpose.

Feel free to base your answer
on criterion of your choice, e.g. existential, ethical.

<snip>

My criteria are the likelihood that I (or at least somebody) will learn
something in the process, and the entertainment value that is the return for
the effort put in.

Richard.

[dhtml]

On Feb 24, 4:32 pm, "Richard Cornford" <[e-mail]>
wrote:

dhtml wrote:

On Feb 24, 11:51 am, Richard Cornford wrote:

<snip - attributions for material not quoted here>

[snip]

I don't want to talk about it much,

Uh huh.

and I can think of many better People to

talk about it with in the event that I did (and
some worse, e.g. VK).

What makes a person better than another?

The likely hood that something substantial or conclusive will come out of
the exchange. Some people can make observations, devise tests and apply
reasoning, in which interesting truths are revealed, while at the other end
of the spectrum there a people who will just make a noise to no purpose.

All positive traits for a javascript-group-poster.

I did find odd that you chose to mention and even capitalize People.
The emphasis came through and I think I got it.

The other one - function decollation. Strange. Decollation means
'beheading', in case you didn't know. And yeah, that was my mistake -
I wrapped the 'thing that chopped my head off' in a try-catch. Thanks.

I want to get back to the other stuff in the thread. I think there's
more to the global Variable object and properties. I'll need some
tests, which don't come free - that will take time.

Regarding strategy and interfaces - I'd like to talk about that too.
I'd like to see the code technique for critique. I can share how I use
strategy/adapter, too, but maybe in another thread.

Garrett

Richard.