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Task/Naming-conventions/Lambdatalk/naming-conventions.lambdatalk

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+Naming conventions
+
+1) global names
+
+- a name is a group of any character except space and curly braces {}
+  for instance "add", "+", "123", "()", "a.b.c", "...", ...
+
+- but giving a variable the name of the 9 special forms (keywords)
+    ["lambda", "def", "if", "let", "quote", "macro", "script", "style", "require"]
+or of one of the more than 170 primitives
+    ["div", ..., "+", ..., "cons", ..., A.new, A.first, A.rest, ..., long_add, ...]
+is possible but is obviously strongly discouraged.
+
+- when a function calls an helper function, it's better to prefix the helper function's name
+  with the calling function's name. For instance the function "fibonacci" sets
+  some initializations and calls the recursive part "fibonacci.rec".
+
+- functions organized into sets (libraries) should be named with a common prefix.
+  For instance the set of functions working on complex numbers [ "C.new", "C.x", "C.y", "C.+", "C.*", ...],
+  suggesting object-oriented programming.
+
+2) local names
+
+Consider this example:
+
+{def add {lambda {:a :b} :a+:b is equal to {+ :a :b}}}
+-> add
+{add 3 4}
+-> 3+4 is equal to 7
+
+When the add function is called the occurences of arguments {:a :b} are replaced by the given values, [3 4],
+in the body of the function ":a+:b is equal to {+ :a :b}", leading to "3+4 is equal to {+ 3 4}" and finally
+to "3+4 is equal to 7". Note that the character "a" inside the word "equal" has not been replaced.
+So generally speaking:
+
+- inside a function local defined arguments must be prefixed by a colon, ":",
+- they must have a null intersection. For instance this arguments list {:a1 :a2} is valid
+  because the intersection of :a1 and :a2 is null, but this one {:a :a1} is not,
+  because the intersection of :a and :a1 is :a.
+- an alternative could be to prefix and postfix names, say :a: and :a1: which have a null intersection.
+  It's a matter of choice let to the coder. In all cases naming must be done with the utmost care.