Gambas Naming Conventions
Using a standardized naming convention helps to simplify our work as programmers and reduce the effort needed to read and understand the source code by others and even ourselves when we later revisit the code.
Use of the naming convention outlined here is optional but it is strongly encouraged as good programming practice in Gambas.
The Gambas naming convention generally follows
Hungarian notation using upper
Camel case (also known as Pascal case) with an uppercase or lowercase prefix as a type indicator.
There are a couple of notable exceptions to this. An
Action should use all lowercase letters with a dash (hypen) separating words. And, functions and methods are not given a prefix.
Here is a short summary. Use:
-
Camel case for all base names (except for Actions).
-
A Prefix of only one uppercase character for
Forms, Classes, Modules and Reports.
-
A Prefix of a single lowercase character for
Variables.
-
A prefix of three lowercase characters for
Controls.
All private variable names of a class should additionally be prefixed with $ (dollar sign).
Examples
Camel case
MPrettyCode, Sub GetDateTitle()
Action
save-project, menu-tool
Upper case prefix for Forms, Classes, Modules, and Reports
FMain, CProjectList, MTest, RSales
Variables
aList, bIsAvailable, cHash, fPhi, iCounter, sFirstName
Form Controls and elements
btnCancel, btxSearchNames, lblWiki, cmxParent
Prefixes for variable names
The variable name prefixes listed in the table below are supported by the compiler but are not required.
Example
PRIVATE $iLast AS Integer
PRIVATE $sLast AS String
PRIVATE $hEditor AS Object
PUBLIC SUB Form_Open()
Dim dToday As Date = Date(Now)
Dim aNames As String[] = ["Goofy", "Mikey", "Donald"]
Dim nI As Integer
For nI = 0 To aNames.Max
Print aNames[nI]
Next
Prefixes for form control and element names
When placing a new
Form element. Gambas gives it a name like "Button1" "Button2" ...
Before you assign a method to the new element, you rename it to "btnStart" or "btnNew" ...
|
Type
|
Prefix
|
|---|
|
Button (ToolB., MenuB., RadioB., ColorB.,SwitchB., ToggleB.)
|
btn
|
|
ButtonBox
|
btx
|
|
CheckBox
|
chx
|
|
ColorChooser
|
clc
|
|
DnsClient, FtpClient, HttpClient
|
cln
|
|
ColumnView
|
clw
|
|
ComboBox
|
cmx
|
|
DocumentView
|
dcw
|
|
DrawingArea
|
dra
|
|
DirChooser
|
drc
|
|
DirView
|
drw
|
|
DirBox
|
drx
|
|
DateChooser
|
dtc
|
|
DateBox
|
dtx
|
|
Expander
|
exp
|
|
FileChooser
|
flc
|
|
FileView
|
flw
|
|
FontChooser
|
fnc
|
|
FontBox
|
fnx
|
|
Frame
|
frm
|
|
GridView
|
grw
|
|
HBox
|
hrx
|
|
HtmlView
|
htw
|
|
IconView
|
icw
|
|
ImageView
|
imw
|
|
Label (TextLabel, LCDLabel, URLLabel)
|
lbl
|
|
ListEditor
|
lse
|
|
ListView
|
lsw
|
|
ListBox
|
lsx
|
|
Menu
|
mnu
|
|
MessageView
|
msw
|
|
MaskBox
|
msx
|
|
MovieBox
|
mvx
|
|
PictureBox
|
pcx
|
|
ColorPalette
|
plt
|
|
Panel (HPanel, IconPanel, SidePanel, TabPanel, ToolPanel, VPanel)
|
pnl
|
|
ProgressBar
|
prb
|
|
Printer
|
prn
|
|
FileProperties
|
prp
|
|
ScrollArea
|
sca
|
|
ScrollBar
|
scb
|
|
ServerSocket, UdpSocket
|
sck
|
|
ScrollView
|
scw
|
|
Slider
|
sld
|
|
SliderBox
|
slx
|
|
SpinBar
|
spb
|
|
Splitter, HSplit, VSplit
|
spl
|
|
Spinner
|
spn
|
|
Spring
|
spr
|
|
SpinBox
|
spx
|
|
SerialPort
|
srp
|
|
TabStrip
|
stp
|
|
TableView
|
tbw
|
|
ToolBar
|
tlb
|
|
Timer
|
tmr
|
|
TerminalView
|
tmw
|
|
TimeBox
|
tmx
|
|
TreeView
|
trw
|
|
TextArea
|
txa
|
|
TextEditor, TextEdit
|
txe
|
|
TextView
|
txw
|
|
TextBox
|
txx
|
|
ValueBox
|
vlx
|
|
VBox
|
vrx
|
|
WebView
|
wbw
|
|
Workspace
|
wrk
|
|
Wizard
|
wzr
|
Convention
Generally, the three characters of the prefixes of form controls and elements derive from the following convention.
The first character followed by two phonically helpful letters if the name is simple; for example:
mnu for
Menu
If instead the name is complex, then the first two characters will be determined by the first part of the name,
while the last one is based on the element's type:
|
Name (second part)
|
Suffix
|
|---|
|
Area
|
a
|
|
Bar
|
b
|
|
Box
|
x
|
|
Chooser
|
c
|
|
Editor
|
e
|
|
View
|
w
|
Exceptions
There are exceptions that take the whole prefix from the second part of the complex name:
|
Name (second part)
|
Prefix
|
|---|
|
Client
|
cln
|
|
Palette
|
plt
|
|
Panel
|
pnl
|
|
Properties
|
prp
|
|
Socket
|
sck
|
|
Strip
|
stp
|