Monday, March 10, 2008

Good names for modules?

Today I updated my DeNGVaT module for the first time in ages, as someone found a bug in it (D'oh!). This also probably indicates that they are also probably the first person to use it. I have to admit, the name is pretty cryptic (it stands for Debug, Named Global Variables and Timers) and I sometimes feel that it would be better calling it "Named Global" module or something that at least covered one aspect of it. The trouble is it does too much!

Another module that is similarly burdened is the Hypertext module. This allows you to use mark-up in your text, and it displays it properly, allowing you to change fonts, colours, underlines, etc. in mid-text. Most normally, one might use a bold version of a font in mid-sentence to emphasise a word. This can be marked up as "Yes, he *really* did do it!" for example, and the word "really" is displayed in bold when the module is used. It also does hyperlinks, so one can simulate a simple "intranet" browser within an AGS game. Since the text rendering is already there, I also extended it to do speech bubbles for characters. So perhaps the module should be called "Text markup rendering, hypertext and speech bubbles module". But that makes for a mighty long file name and a poor acronym.

So, I open the floor to suggestions for better names for any of my modules. Answers in the comments section below, please, and the best one wins a free mention in the newly named module and this blog. What more could you want, eh?

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