[dev] Coding Standard: Underscores for private method and property names

[Ralf Lang]

Hallo,

our current wording of the Coding Standard leaves room for
interpretation with regard to underscores in property/method names.
Historically, we used underscores to designate internal/private methods
and properties in classes.


Now, citing
https://github.com/horde/base/blame/master/doc/CODING_STANDARDS.rst

Basics
======
Horde Coding Standards are following PSR-0, PSR-1 and PSR-2 of the `PHP
Framework Interop Group`_
.. _`PHP Framework Interop Group`: http://www.php-fig.org/



PSR-2 suggests under 4.2

Property names SHOULD NOT be prefixed with a single underscore to indicate
protected or private visibility.

and under 4.3

Method names SHOULD NOT be prefixed with a single underscore to indicate
protected or private visibility.

However, Horde Coding Standards suggest

6
Functions used only in the current script/class (e.g. private or
protected) should begin with a _ character (e.g. _exampleLibrary). This
helps distinguish these private functions from other, publicly available
functions.

21   Private Variables

Variables used exclusively within a class should begin with a underscore
('_') character. An example class variable definition: protected
$_variablename;

Both documents use SHOULD (soft requirement wording), though in a
contradicting way.

How to interpret?

a) Explicit statements in the CODING_STANDARDS document override PSR-2,
Horde uses underscores for private/protected -> Should be clarified in
wording
b) Old code uses underscores for private/protected, new code avoids them
-> Should be clarified in wording


Regards

Ralf
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