naming convention / dictionary

OK, I think that this post goes here.

I was thinking today willing driving to work about what happens when a snippet/chunk/plugin/TV (CSTP) has the same name.
errr, no I haven’t gone testing since I’ve been a bit busy between work and tangent creating here.

If there is a problem I was going to suggest that maybe we should have some kind of dictionary (for a lack of better word -- it sounds better than a reference bank).

That way developers could check to see if a given "CSTP" has been made or if the name they’d like to use has been used or not.

We’re also going to think of some kind of versioning system for CSTPs. I was fiddling around with one of susan’s templates the other night and noticed that the login chunk was in her set as well as in modx. I wasn’t sure what to do.

Also, since I love to have things always up-to-date this type of library.

I do try to remember to comment at the top of any extra files where they are modifications of stock objects, such as a modification to the SidebarWebLogin chunk. But this brings up a good point, which has been brought up elsewhere. We do need to come up with a standardized way of creating objects and identifying them.

well, I dont understand this exactly !

Are you talking about proposal for ethics of writing code/explanations in future snippets/plugins things ?

Yes. For example, if I modify the WebLoginSidebar chunk for a specific template, I should not be able to use the same name as the default chunk. For myself, it’s no big deal, since all I did was modify the existing chunk. But a user of my template package would have a problem trying to install my modified chunk as a new chunk. He may not want to simply modify the existing one, and while it’s easy enough for him to rename it, it isn’t very friendly.

There should also be a consistant form for comments at the beginning of snippets, etc that make their version and their usage clear. Similarly, I would like to see that usage example displayed in the Snippets tab of the document editor; perhaps as a ? link or a tooltip. I’ve been thinking about that off and on for months now.

Hi Susan,

Sorry for using as an example. It was a little late and should have worded what I wrote a little better

Great idea about adding more information to the CSTP panels!

However, I’d like to have something on the main site here too which is what I was referring to as a library. Possibly use the users panel to pull up information from the main site another way to do it too.

Anybody else to chip in?

You were quite correct. I have been sloppy. Time to tighten up. I need to take out some time to write myself up a "coding practices" sheet, and stick it on the wall over my desk.

hehe, to be honest I didn’t read the manual. Typical male attitude

Neither do I, or at least not until I’m really desperate

lolo, by the time men realize that they are desperate it’s already too late


ahem (the situation of desperate my change but still it normally is already too late) lololo

I’m all for coding standards and an improved snippet-list examples. In fact, I think we should have some sort of parsable header format in general that will automatically load the description, set a flag to cachable, locked, etc. Versions numbers, author, copyright, and so on might be appropriate too.