AS2 naming conventions: suffix or prefix?

[PaulSheffield]

I'm just setting out learning actionScript. Wanting to do it by the book like a good boy, I recently attended a Macromedia authorised training course where the materials used prefixes to name new objects/instances:
mcMovie
btnButton
txtTextField
and so on.

However, the Flash8 help files suggest using _suffixes:
movie_mc
button_btn
etc...

Does it make any difference (I know that code-hinting in Flash8 is triggered by the suffixes)? Is one method more widely used, or more appropriate for AS3?

TIA

[CyanBlue]

Howdy and Welcome...

I use the suffix only because of the code hinting and funny thing is that I don't use that code hinting at all... I just keep type the function instead of selecting it from that...

I think people from other language background mostly go by the prefix because that's abit more widely used method, but I don't think it really matters as long as you are consistent in your code... Just use something that you are most comfortable with and you should be good...

[PaulSheffield]

Thanks

In that case, I think I'll go with the first method, simply because I learned not to use the _underscore_ writing html and it feels kinda weird using it in AS2!

[CyanBlue]

Whatever you are most comfortable with...

Can you clarify your reason abit though cuz I don't really understand that...

[tg]

if you want to force the code hints this will work for some of the items. not sure if it works for all of them:

in your code do:

// got to do this next line to get your code hint
// MovieClip mcMyMovie; 

then when you type in mcMyMovie. - at the '.' you will get the code hints pop up for the movie clip.

[PaulSheffield]

Originally Posted by CyanBlue

Whatever you are most comfortable with...

Can you clarify your reason abit though cuz I don't really understand that...

I've seen underscores discouraged in folder/file names in html from a usability standpoint: a live link is indicated by default in your browser with an underscore, so a link with its own underscore becomes hard to read by eye and looks like it has a gap in it: underscore_underscore.com becomes:

http://www.underscore_underscore.com

It's a small point, but it got me out of using underscores at all in web design.

Hope that made sense

[PaulSheffield]

Thanks tg, that's gonna be useful! I need all the hints I can get.

[CyanBlue]

Well... That is a valid point, but I don't know how that could be really related to the programming in general... We are talking about something that's only visible to the developers not the end users...

Never tried that nor will I try that, but that's good to know, tg... I always have trouble with the that notation... My brain simply does not work with that somehow...

[PaulSheffield]

Originally Posted by CyanBlue

Well... That is a valid point, but I don't know how that could be really related to the programming in general... We are talking about something that's only visible to the developers not the end users...
(

Agreed. Just explaining why I have a downer on underscores. It's just a key combination that doesn't feel right to me.

[Flash Gordon]

just my practice:

Anything built in the GUI gets the appropriate suffix. IE moveclip on the stage gets named myClip_mc.

Anything built with code does NOT get a suffix, but data typed.

This lets me very quickly see if I'm referencing a dynamic object or static.