[Geany-devel] Set Filetypes Menu - group names

Nick Treleaven nick.treleaven at xxxxx
Fri Apr 29 16:06:46 UTC 2011


On Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:13:05 -0700
Matthew Brush <mbrush at codebrainz.ca> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I just noticed the change[1] in wording of the set filetypes menu which 
> was something that had (slightly) bothered me before, since I personally 
> consider most of the scripting languages as programming languages as 
> well. 

This is why I changed it, scripting is programming.

> I'm not sure that the word "Compiled" is the best choice though, 
> since it's kind of vague:
> 
> Is Vala a compiled language because it's compiled into C code?
> Is Python *not* compiled because it's compiled into bytecode?
> Is Java a compiled language?
> 
> I'm sure you can see what I mean, there's a lot of gray area using the 
> term Compiled, since many languages can either be compiled to machine 
> code, interpreted by a VM/runtime, compiled then interpreted, compiled 
> to one format then another, compiled just in time, and so on. 

Obviously all source code is compiled at some point. The Compiled group
all have one thing in common - separate compilation is normally
required before execution. This is still true for Java. Python compiles
on the fly, and is obviously thought of as a scripting language rather
than a compiled one.

> Unfortunately I don't really have much for alternative terms, but a few 
> possibilities for better categorization could be:
> 
> - By the current categories, but putting filetypes under each one they 
> fit in.

that depends on how you interpret compiled.

> - By changing Scripting to Interpreted and then shuffling some filetypes 
> around to reflect the way the languages are usually compiled/run.

D can be interpreted or compiled, but not scripting. It's normally
compiled, but the point is this categorisation is not much better than
the status quo.

> - By the current categories, no change, since users will get used to 
> where to find their languages pretty quickly.
> 
> - By Static vs Dynamic Typing

Some are both e.g. Haxe.

> - By programming language paradigm (ie. oop, functional, etc), and then 
> each programming language could fall below more than one menu item if 
> they are multi-paradigm.

I think this is too complicated.

> - By just Programming Languages, so that the Compiled and Scripting 
> menus get merged.  This could make the menu long/scroll.  SciTE does 
> this but with fewer languages.

I really don't see what's wrong with the current separation, after a
first glance at each it should be easy to understand.

> - By alphabetic order, with a menu item for each letter of the alphabet 
> unless no filetypes fall under a letter, then don't show it.  This could 
> be ugly in terms of code/i8n and appearances.  IIRC another editor is 
> doing this (Notepad++?).

filetype names are not translated IIRC.
Not sure this proposal is better.

> There's also a few other quirks I've noticed in the 'Set Filetypes' menus:
> 
> - I generally wouldn't consider CSS a markup language, but it probably 
> technically is.  IMHO it would be more apt to put it under Miscellaneous.

I agree, I think there is little overlap with CSS and document
languages like HTML.

> - I believe LaTex, Markdown, and reStructuredText are Markup Languages.

Good point also, and txt2tags.

> - I don't know COBOL but I think it's a programming language isn't it?
> 
> - NSIS and CMake files, while domain-specific, are still 
> scripting/programming languages.

Ok.

> - 'SQL Dump file' seems a bit odd, since it's a file containing language 
> constructs and is "run" by the db engine, maybe it should be 'SQL file' 
> or 'SQL source file'.  I know a file containing SQL is often the result 
> of dumping a database, but is it the only time you would end up with 
> such a file?
> 
> - The wording 'Miscellaneous Languages' makes you think the contents of 
> the submenu will contain (programming) Languages, but a config, diff, or 
> gettext file for ex, doesn't really seem to be a language.  The word 
> 'Languages' could be removed from that menu item, which would imply that 
> the contents of that menu will be 'Filetypes', more generally.
> 
> I could be wrong on these, they're just my observations.  None of these 
> are a big deal, but it was something I questioned probably even the 
> first time I opened Geany and every time I select a filetype since.

Agree also on all these points.

Regards,
Nick



More information about the Devel mailing list