Could the function names clarify which ones perform an HTTP request?

[emodnet]

Could the function names clarify which ones perform an HTTP request?

[maelle]

@annakrystalli I was thinking about this whilst adding fixtures. It'd be nice to know at a glance which ones recycle info from say the client, and which ones don't.

[maelle]

I have been thinking about this again.

• keeping get for the method that just extract metadata
• having "download" in the name of https://emodnet.github.io/EMODnetWFS/reference/emodnet_get_layers.html

[maelle]

@annakrystalli @salvafern what's your take on this?

[maelle]

Related #53

[salvafern]

Hi, I'm not aware of the best practices but seems like a valid point. Other packages use "download" instead of "get" indeed.

[maelle]

I was inspired by the Art of Readable Code where they wrote "Many Programmers are used to the convention that methods starting with get are 'lightweight accessors' that simply return an internal member."

But maybe we should follow ows4R lead to not confuse users 🤔

[salvafern]

Well if you think it will improve the code readability I am all in!

[maelle]

Notes

• Even if creating the client beforehand, emodnet_get_wfs_info() needs an internet connection because of guess_layer_format(). So maybe its name should contain "fetch"? (or download, I thought of fetch because it's a shorter word)

[maelle]

• emodnet_get_layer_info() also performs a query.

[maelle]

• emodnet_get_layers() also performs a query.