On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 1:00 PM, Stephen Colebourne <scolebou...@joda.org>wrote:
> On 16 October 2012 17:44, Matt Benson <gudnabr...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 11:42 AM, James Carman > > <ja...@carmanconsulting.com> wrote: > >> On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 12:38 PM, Matt Benson <gudnabr...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >>> > >>> Are these specific examples not the words you would actually use were > >>> you having a discussion on the subject in English? :P > >>> > >> > >> Why not just support both? The "with*" methods would just be aliases > >> for the more "natural language" method names. > > I would categorise first in two > - mutable builders producing immutable objects > - immutable objects > > The former should generally have short methods without prefixes, the > latter is more complex. > > For the latter, as a general rule, I use > withXxx()/plusXxx()/minusXxx() for items that affect the state and > past participle for other methods that manipulate the object in other > ways: > > // affects state (year/month/day) > date = date.withYear(2012) > date = date.plusYears(6) > // aftect multiple pieces of state, so past participle > period = period.multipliedBy(6) > period = period.negated() > > This is simply an extension of when you might use setXxx() on a bean, > and when you might use a named method. > I like the idea of two classes: CVSFormat and CVSFormatBuilder but... My next question is: Does CVSFormat have any public constructors? If not, the builder can throw exceptions when one of its methods is called and validation fails. This is nice in the sense that the format object feels more lightweight and has a simpler/shorter protocol. It also leaves room for other builders to be added (to configured formats from config files for example) without growing the format class itself. If CVSFormat does have public constructors, then the format class still has to do its own validation. What I gain is the choice of using a kitchen sink constructor or the fluent builder API, I can choose my style. If there are two classes, and I cannot build a format without a format builder, then why not collapse the two classes into one? Gary > Stephen > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@commons.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@commons.apache.org > > -- E-Mail: garydgreg...@gmail.com | ggreg...@apache.org JUnit in Action, 2nd Ed: <http://goog_1249600977>http://bit.ly/ECvg0 Spring Batch in Action: <http://s.apache.org/HOq>http://bit.ly/bqpbCK Blog: http://garygregory.wordpress.com Home: http://garygregory.com/ Tweet! http://twitter.com/GaryGregory
