a shorter namespace for convenience?

[chenyong]

Currently it's quite difficult to remember the whole name of the package and namespace since it's quite long...

[appliedscience/js-interop "0.1.20"]

[applied-science.js-interop :as j]

Do you think it's okay to change to a shorter name, as a common used library for cljs community? For example:

[js-interop "0.1.20"]

[js-interop.core :as j]

[daveliepmann]

Hi chenyong, sorry this response took so long.

We like the namespace the way it is, for several reasons. First, it's good Clojure and ClojureScript practice to use multi-segment project coordinates and namespaces. The Clojure style guide has a good thread on this topic, covering several points. First, Alex Miller points out that multi-segment namespaces avoid polluting the global namespace:

Namespaces exist to disambiguate names. Using a single segment namespace puts you in direct conflict with everyone else using single segment namespaces, thus making it more likely you will conflict with another code base.

This also makes it easier to create and disambiguate forks. For instance, "I use clj-commons' version of that library, because they took over from so-and-so."

Second, Daniel Compton quotes David Nolen to point out that one-part names are particular troublesome in ClojureScript:

Compiler support for single segment namespaces has always been spotty and there's no intention to improve it. There are fundamental semantic issues - for example if you have a DOM element with a CSS id and you haven't supplied a namespace but you goog.require one with that name it will return the DOM element. Good luck debugging that.

IMO everything in the design of Clojure, the JVM, and ClojureScript seems to be pushing away from single segment namespaces.

Let's also keep in mind that removing the namespace serves no purpose except to save a few keystrokes. This is not a significant cost. Furthermore, our IDE should be saving those keystrokes anyway! Consider clj-refactor's ability to add dependencies and requires or Cursive's project.clj autocomplete.

So all in all we appreciate the suggestion but will not change this.

[chenyong]

First, Alex Miller points out that multi-segment namespaces avoid polluting the global namespace.

Agreed but js-interop.core is not "single-segment", although core did convey no meaning. I don't argue and yes indeed it's not a good name. Main troublesome on my side is just the name is hard to remember and type compared to others.

Furthermore, our IDE should be saving those keystrokes anyway!

I'm not sure if most Clojure users are using IDEs. Personally I use Sublime Text combined with my own tools, which does not include the dependency for me.

Other than that. Many projects, medley for example, provides a snippet in their README so I can copy/paste really easily. Since I can't remember the name very easily I have to rely on other means to add the library.

[chenyong]

I wrote a script based on data from Clojars. https://clojars.org/stats/all.edn Turned out "applied-science" with 15 characters is not too long compared to others.

1 *
2 *****
3 *********************
4 ********************************************
5 ****************************************************************
6 ************************************************************************************************************
7 *****************************************************************************************************************
8 *************************************************************************************************************
9 *********************************************************************************
10 *********************************************************************************
11 ***************************************************************************
12 ************************************************************************
13 *************************************************************
14 *****************************************
15 **************************************************************
16 *******************************************
17 *****************************************
18 **********************************************
19 *******************************************
20 ******************************************
21 **************************
22 *******************
23 ***************
24 ***********
25 ********
26 *******
27 *****
28 ****
29 **
30 ***
31 *
32 *
33 **
34 *
35 *
36 **
37 *
38 *
39 *
40 *
41 *
42 *
43 *
44 *
45 *
46 *
47 *
48 *
49 *
50 *
51 *
52 *
53 *
54 *
55 *
57 *
58 *
60 *
61 *
62 *
64 *
66 *
68 *
70 *
72 *
74 *
75 *
76 *
78 *
79 *
88 *
96 *