[SOLVED] Which of these approaches to method naming is better and why?

Which of these approaches to method naming is better and why?

In my app, we have Users who can perform actions on one another - like poking on Facebook.

I'm writing the methods just now and am not really sure which approach to take. I mean, I know they're both acceptable but is there a more idiomatic approach?

Option 1

if @current_user.may_poke?(@other_user)
  @current_user.poke!(@other_user)
end

Option 2

if @current_user.may_poke?(@other_user)
  @other_user.poke!(@current_user)
end

The first option reads better in English, almost perfectly as a sentence. The second option makes more sense in terms of method naming, "poke" is a method being performed on the @other_user. The @current_user is just an argument to provide extra info - who did the poking.

Solution

I'd stick with Option 1 there.. if you follow the logic of the conditional, then you're asking "If current_user may poke other_user, then have current_user poke other_user". Option 2 doesn't make much sense when thought of in those terms.

Also.. matz, the author of Ruby, states that "The bang [exclamation point] sign means "the bang version is more dangerous than its non bang counterpart; handle with care"." ( http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/176830#773946 ). I'd probably just use poke for that method name instead of poke!.