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Thanks for pointing that out. It can be called all of those. We liked sigil from its connotation: > Google defines sigil as, “an inscribed or painted symbol co

Thanks for pointing that out. It can be called all of those. We liked sigil from its connotation: > Google defines sigil as, “an inscribed or painted symbol considered to have magical power,” and we like to think of types as pretty magical https://sorbet.org/docs/static#fn1 https://sorbet.org/docs/static#fn1

dochtman 7y ago
That's a pretty unintuitive use, since "sigil" is more commonly used (in programming languages) as a single symbol, as in a non-alphanumeric character that's used as some kind of syntax. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigil_(computer_programming) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigil_(computer_programming)
- sdegutis 7y ago
  Right so the $ in PHP or @ in Perl would be a sigil, (and even the $ and % in QBasic, am I dating myself?) and the # in this example and all C code and some Swift code would be a pragma. Seems pretty cut and dry.
  - e12e 7y ago
    And the $ and @ in ruby...
sdegutis 7y ago
I remember there was this CEO once who was new to the software industry and was looking for a word to describe non-small-business customers. When people suggested "Enterprise", he instantly dismissed it, and when they insisted this is already the word we all use to mean this, he actually opened the dictionary to prove that it wasn't quite accurate. What I took from this is that, when cultures or conventions already have momentum, sometimes you just have to go with it. This is the same reason I don't like Go.
- chessturk 7y ago
  How does this relate to Go? That flew over my head.
  - fouc 7y ago
    Could be a reference to Go choosing to use different words for similar concepts that exist in other languages like C++? I'm not familiar enough to think of examples though.
  - sdegutis 7y ago
    They throw every convention out the window and act like they have a true greenfield audience. They don't even allow [variable, Class, CONSTANT] convention, they don't follow the convention of letting devs choose their own project location, and a lot more.
fouc 7y ago
test/test_corpus.cc 364: auto checkPragma = [&](string ext) { 368: << "Missing `# typed:` pragma. Sources with ." << ext << ".exp files must specify # typed:"; 377: checkPragma("cfg"); A quick look at the source shows that it may have been called pragma at one point. EDIT: I'm guessing "sigil" was chosen because it's closely matching the "signatures" or Sigil.sig method name?
- ptarjan 7y ago
  Nice spelunking! Yeah, this word means nothing really. Sigil, pragma, directive, typed comment, whatever. Feel free to call it "dohicky" if you'd like.
weeksie 7y ago
Bummer. That kind of name overloading has the potential to be needlessly confusing down the line. "Sigils, I mean well, they're like pragmas but in Sorbet we call them sigils." [x a billion] Now's the time to fix that stuff. (In any case, I'm quite keen to start playing with sorbet, looks great!)
e12e 7y ago
Ruby has perl-like sigils, eg: @i_am_instance_var, $i_am_global. Additionally, one might consider array literals sigil-like (like %w[a b c d e f g]). https://ruby-doc.org/docs/ruby-doc-bundle/UsersGuide/rg/variables.html https://ruby-doc.org/docs/ruby-doc-bundle/UsersGuide/rg/vari...

dochtman 7y ago

That's a pretty unintuitive use, since "sigil" is more commonly used (in programming languages) as a single symbol, as in a non-alphanumeric character that's used as some kind of syntax. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigil_(computer_programming) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigil_(computer_programming)

sdegutis 7y ago
Right so the $ in PHP or @ in Perl would be a sigil, (and even the $ and % in QBasic, am I dating myself?) and the # in this example and all C code and some Swift code would be a pragma. Seems pretty cut and dry.
- e12e 7y ago
  And the $ and @ in ruby...

sdegutis 7y ago

I remember there was this CEO once who was new to the software industry and was looking for a word to describe non-small-business customers. When people suggested "Enterprise", he instantly dismissed it, and when they insisted this is already the word we all use to mean this, he actually opened the dictionary to prove that it wasn't quite accurate. What I took from this is that, when cultures or conventions already have momentum, sometimes you just have to go with it. This is the same reason I don't like Go.

chessturk 7y ago
How does this relate to Go? That flew over my head.
- fouc 7y ago
  Could be a reference to Go choosing to use different words for similar concepts that exist in other languages like C++? I'm not familiar enough to think of examples though.
- sdegutis 7y ago
  They throw every convention out the window and act like they have a true greenfield audience. They don't even allow [variable, Class, CONSTANT] convention, they don't follow the convention of letting devs choose their own project location, and a lot more.

fouc 7y ago

test/test_corpus.cc 364: auto checkPragma = [&](string ext) { 368: << "Missing `# typed:` pragma. Sources with ." << ext << ".exp files must specify # typed:"; 377: checkPragma("cfg"); A quick look at the source shows that it may have been called pragma at one point. EDIT: I'm guessing "sigil" was chosen because it's closely matching the "signatures" or Sigil.sig method name?

ptarjan 7y ago
Nice spelunking! Yeah, this word means nothing really. Sigil, pragma, directive, typed comment, whatever. Feel free to call it "dohicky" if you'd like.

weeksie 7y ago

Bummer. That kind of name overloading has the potential to be needlessly confusing down the line. "Sigils, I mean well, they're like pragmas but in Sorbet we call them sigils." [x a billion] Now's the time to fix that stuff. (In any case, I'm quite keen to start playing with sorbet, looks great!)

e12e 7y ago

Ruby has perl-like sigils, eg: @i_am_instance_var, $i_am_global. Additionally, one might consider array literals sigil-like (like %w[a b c d e f g]). https://ruby-doc.org/docs/ruby-doc-bundle/UsersGuide/rg/variables.html https://ruby-doc.org/docs/ruby-doc-bundle/UsersGuide/rg/vari...