Parms Anyone? [Rant]
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Actually, I prefer:
http://www.agriform.it/public/images/prodotti/granapadano/confezioni/giragratta.jpg
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Filed Under:
ptrWinDictClsObjHnd
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i've seen parameters occasionally shortened verbally to parms but never in writing. it's usually shortened to params when writing.
Ditto.
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I think the term "arguments" went out-of-use decades ago. At least, I never see it any more... which is good because it's a really weird metaphor. (Am I trying to convince the function to work? Like... I have to argue with it? Can it argue back? Huh?)
I believe it stemmed from the mathematics term. As in:
An independent variable associated with a function and determining the value of the function. For example, in the expression y = F(x1, x2), the arguments of the function F are x1 and x2, and the value is y.[1]
This definition has around for a long time, but perhaps you have been sheltered from it.
Edit: and I'm late to the conversation. Par for the course. :P
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Please, r331 1337 programmers use clazz for Class
What exactly is wrong with
klass(orclass_, for that matter)?
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We usually call them "parms" in my group, as a short-hand for "parameters" (the other option). There's not a cultural requirement for either, but in normal conversation it probably favors the first 75% of the time.
I work in a z/OS (MVS successor) environment, which still has a severely restricted file name format. Without digging into that in detail, you wind up with names like SYS1.PARMLIB and SYS2.PARM123.LIB. I suspect the term "parms" derives specifically from those--or maybe the usage in the names derived from ancient usage at IBM. Either way, it is now clearly traditional.
It is also pervasive. We write a significant amount of Rexx, which uses ARG, PARSE ARG, and ARG() to access the command argument strings. Yet the argument string for that command is still universally referred to in discussion and documentation as "parms" or "parameters".
"Params" is never used on our side of the house. Not sure what Windows and Linux folk at our site use; there's not much cross-pollination.
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CITE YOUR SHIT.
Do I have to? Getting a DOI for excrement would be… well, it's not a request I want to make of our library…
