362842 - please rename nsIMsgImapMailFolder.canIOpenThisFolder

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(MailNews Core :: Networking: IMAP, enhancement)

Description

[timeless]

the I really adds no value and results in a bad hit for a certain problem I'm about to file.

canOpenFolder seems like a perfectly good name...

Comment 1

[timeless]

Attachment: change attribute name

Comment 2

[David :Bienvenu]

what's the problem this solves, out of curiosity?

Comment 3

[timeless]

well, first, the language/meaning/whatever is totally wrong. interfaces shouldn't deal with "I"s certainly never "canI" do this. maybe canActiveUserDoSomething.

ignoring the fact that the attribute name is just bad...

in js and other scripting languages, the systems employ interface flattening.

This involves merging properties/methods from multiple interfaces into the list of properties for a single object. If multiple interfaces have the same method then you need some way to specify which you want, this is done by including additional properties for each supported interface.

so you can do:

doppler:/Applications/Browsers/SeaMonkey.6.app/Contents/MacOS josh$ ./xpcshell 
js> Components.manager.nsIComponentRegistrar.autoRegister
function autoRegister() {
    [native code]
}
js> 

the problem is, what happens if someone decides to be annoying and name a property with the same name as an interface?

Note that not all interfaces begin 'nsI', some begin 'jsdI', or 'mozI', so while I could just complain when someone names an attribute 'nsI...', I'd rather complain whenever someone uses any 2/3 letter system that could be an interface name - bug 362843.

Your attribute isn't frozen, is used in a handful of places, and is one of only two interfaces with an attribute that could fall into this category.

Comment 4

[David :Bienvenu]

Comment on attachment 247604 [details] [diff] [review]
change attribute name

ok, thx

Comment 5

[timeless]

Comment on attachment 247604 [details] [diff] [review]
change attribute name

mozilla/mailnews/imap/src/nsImapMailFolder.cpp 	1.739
mozilla/mailnews/imap/src/nsImapService.cpp 	1.318
mozilla/mailnews/imap/public/nsIMsgImapMailFolder.idl 	1.33