I would think that those questions are off-topic for EL&U simply for the fact the answer can be given just from a programmer point of view, and users on EL&U are not supposed to be all programmers (even if it can happen that the majority of them are programmers at any level).
To make clear what I mean, I will report two examples:
What name should I use for my function, instead of IsNotArray()
?
A programmer could simply reply with (supposing the programming language has such operator) "You just need an IsArray()
function; if you need to check if a variable is not an array, then you use !IsArray()
." Who doesn't know anything about programming languages, it would not answer in that way, but that would be probably be the better answer that such question should get.
In my PHP script I added a function; should I call it str_shuffle()
or str_permutation()
?
Who is not a programmer would probably say that one or the other is indifferent, or would choose one saying for which reasons s/he thinks it is better; who knows PHP will say that str_shuffle()
is a function already defined from PHP, and there would be problems when using a user function called str_shuffle()
.
The second example makes evident that the answer for such questions depends from the programming context; even if that question would be asked on Stack Overflow, or Programmers, who answers would need to know for which programming language the question is being asked. On EL&U, that would be an irrelevant detail as a linguistic, for example, is not supposed to know anything about programming, and reporting that the question is about a Java method, or a PHP function would not help to give the correct answer as who answers is supposed to answer basing on English usage of a word, or a group of words.
Then, a compiler doesn't accept function/method/class names that follow the English grammar or usage; a compiler is happy even if the function would be called x3efdsdf()
, or MangiaIlPanino()
.
What those questions are really asking is "which function name would help other developers to remember the purpose of a function?" To that question, only a developer is able to give a correct answer.
Finally, the fact Programmers, which is supposed to accept subjective questions about programming, doesn't accept those questions is a sign that they should not be accepted on EL&U either. They put a limit on the subjective questions they accept (and they have a good reason to do so); I don't see why those subjective questions should be accepted on EL&U, where the topic is not even programming.