Do we want to rename dispatch() and getState() before 1.0?

[gaearon]

Bikeshedding thread here.

As part of 1.0 we can do some breaking changes we won't be able to do after 1.0. This includes bikeshedding on names.

I wanted this library to be a functional programming trojan horse for Flux people, which I think it succeeded at. Before we reach 1.0, we are able to drop some of the Flux naming baggage and find better names for whatever it does.

We're already getting rid of dispatcher and renaming stores to reducers. Do getState and dispatch still make sense?

Traditionally dispatch was called this way because in Flux an action really is dispatched across multiple Stores. In Redux, however, functional composition means that there is only one root reducer at the top. Do we really dispatch?

I've also heard some people are confused by getState as it sounds similar to React's setState and seems to imply some connection to React. In fact, Redux has nothing to do with React.

What if instead of { getState, dispatch, subscribe } we had... { read, perform, subscribe }? Let's bikeshed.

[goatslacker]

push, pull, subscribe?

get, set, subscribe?

read, write, subscribe?

get, apply, subscribe?

or a more explicit: value(), reduce(), subscribe

[johanneslumpe]

I think perform is way better than dispatch, as it captures what we are doing, performing an action. I'm not 100% sure about read - it's missing something for me Read what?. That might just be because I'm so used to getState by now.

[tappleby]

I don't mind value, apply or perform, subscribe

[gaearon]

I don't want symmetry (get/set, read/write) because they are asymmetric. One receives an action, another returns the state.

[mindjuice]

I like this Trojan horse idea.

To me, read sounds like some action is being taken rather than just accessing some existing value.

Maybe valueOf?

dispatch -> perform sounds pretty good. Can't think of anything better.

[acdlite]

perform is way too general. Performing what? dispatch may not be ideal, but it's at least somewhat specific.

[acdlite]

dispatch was called this way because in Flux an action really is dispatched across multiple Stores

Even with a single reducer, in practice the same action is still being handled by many different sub-reducers. I think dispatch() still kind of fits, but I agree we should try to find something better.

[mindjuice]

Clojure uses send to send actions to agents. (http://clojure.org/agents)

[gaearon]

Is perform(action) really more general than dispatch(action)?

If we throw away the Flux association (which is misleading anyway b/c there is no dispatching under the hood) they sound equally generic to me.

[acdlite]

I can perform a task, or a symphony, or a lobotomy. Dispatch is much narrower.

[acdlite]

Transducers have step(), which is technically a reducer itself...

type Step<X, Y> = (acc: X, val: Y) => X

...but still conceptually related

[acdlite]

I like send, but I think if we do get rid of dispatch, its replacement needs to be significantly better, since we're switching it for a term that people already understand. I'm not sure if send crosses that threshold.

Also send and dispatch are basically synonyms.

[gaearon]

Could be another way: { getState, performAction, subscribe }. Too verbose?

[acdlite]

I kinda think so, and I don't see what it gives us versus dispatch. It's also an imperative phrase (in the English sense, not the programming sense*) which implies that an action has yet to occur, whereas action objects are representations of things that have already happened.

EDIT: although come to think of it, in the programming sense too EDIT2: that's not really fair, though, because essentially all function names are imperative :)

[acdlite]

For context, here are the dictionary definitions (I just took the first entry from Google):

• dispatch – send off to a destination or for a purpose.
• perform – carry out, accomplish, or fulfill (an action, task, or function)
• send – cause to go or be taken to a particular destination; arrange for the delivery of, especially by mail

dispatch still fits the closest, IMO. It has the "fire and forget" connotation.

[mindjuice]

Do you need the get? How about just state.

const { counter } = redux.state();

[acdlite]

@mindjuice That looks like a direct reference to an object, whereas getState() is clearly an accessor.

[mindjuice]

@acdlite Sorry, I have no idea what you mean by that! Can you elaborate?

[acdlite]

@mindjuice Sure :) redux.state looks like you could use it like this:

redux.state.todos // wrong

whereas getState() is clearly a function

redux.getState().todos

[mindjuice]

I see what you mean, but did you miss the parentheses after state() in my example line? It is a function.

const { counter } = redux.state();

[mindjuice]

I just have a slight allergy to get in front of things. Maybe from my brief Eiffel programming days. :)

[gaearon]

I think it's a good idea to stick to verbs for method names in JS. Maybe { dispatch, getState, subscribe } is the best we can do after all.

[acdlite]

@mindjuice Yes I know, but in the JS world accessors usually have verbs in front of them, so it could be a source of confusion.

@gaearon Do we want to consider getAtom() again?

[mindjuice]

I don't think you need a verb for a read-only accessor, but that's just my opinion. Either way, it won't stop me from using Redux!

[mindjuice]

@acdlite I (almost) never use get on accessor functions. It's unnecessary clutter IMO.

[gaearon]

@acdlite Might as well consider it too. :-)

Let's leave this open for a while and hear more suggestions.

[mindjuice]

The job of a function is to return a value. If the function is named for the thing it returns, I think that's great.

[nateajohnson]

Late to the party but some thoughts from a user. How about:

getShape() or just shape() fire() subscribe()

-Nate

[acdlite]

@mindjuice I see your point, but it's nice to be able to look at a parameter, method name, variable name, etc. and know if it's a function without having to refer to documentation.

[mindjuice]

@acdlite On an API with three functions I think you might be okay!

[acdlite]

@nateajohnson fire() is an interesting idea. Kinda sounds dangerous :)

[nateajohnson]

Yeah it does sound dangerous. Fire and forget... or rather let something else in the stack takeover from there :)

[acdlite]

@mindjuice If we named it just state(), here's what the signature of a thunk (handled by thunk middleware) would look like:

(dispatch, state) => {...}

Do you see how that could be confusing?

[gaearon]

I'm confident I don't want it to be value() or state(). I made mistakes with these kinds of APIs and I'm always for verbosity over confusion.

[mindjuice]

@acdlite Perhaps mildly. I generally prefer verbosity too (which iOS dev in Objective-C encourages), but functional programming tends to prefer terseness. Anyway, like I said, it's a minor issue. I still prefer state(), but I can see how in a language like JS with no type specifications, it can be possibly confusing to someone new.

[mindjuice]

Look at underscore's API. Pretty darned FP I think you'd agree.

The accessor methods for Arrays are things like first, last, rest, etc., not getFirst, getLast, getRest. Same for Objects with functions like keys, values, pairs, etc.

Anyway, that's all I have to say on the matter. Just give it five minutes! :-)

[gaearon]

@mindjuice Underscore API is a set of utility methods. It's assumed from context that they have single word names which aren't always verbs. There is no similar context here.

[goatslacker]

getValue() and send() isn't too bad.

We dislike getState because it can be confused by setState, but getState is actually the best name for it. Same goes for dispatch.

Although since send and dispatch are synonyms and clojure uses send I would opt for send because it's shorter and gets the point across pretty well.

[gaearon]

I think it's important to consider the context. dispatch (or send) will be primarily used inside components (or views).

this.props.send(increment());

feels like it assumes some kind of network thing unless you worked with a similar convention before (unlikely for JS devs).

[goatslacker]

Speaking about context, this is a flux-like library so flux-like idioms could be used. I know it's good to appeal to people not coming from flux but we must also keep in mind those who started by reading through vanilla flux and then moved onto redux. The more these concepts map to each other the easier the transition will be.

Also, are there really any better suggestions than what seems like kicking off a network thing?

[gaearon]

There's the existing names which might be best after all :-)

[mindjuice]

@goatslacker That's true to a certain extent, but what I like about Redux is that it improves some things that Flux got fundamentally "wrong" (e.g., renaming Stores to Reducers and moving who owns the state), so sticking to Flux terms may not always make sense . If dispatch isn't really doing a dispatch, then naming it that to be familiar seems wrong. Of course this thread shows that coming up with a better name is hard too!

[gyzerok]

@gaearon, @acdlite I do not see any problem with performAction since every programmer can do import { performAction as perform }. So the API name is verbose enough and you still have an ability to shortcut it with ES6.

[gyzerok]

For the other hand getState() is rly confusing since it points us to React state. The problem is that we talking about this Flux implementation as others. It means that we think in our heads like it is state, but its not. In real world apps this state is for the first a cache for our server db. In my experience most of the time I'm caching db data with Flux Stores, and rly rare use it to store client specific values. What do you think guys?

[aaronjensen]

perform seems good, I'm not sure the verbosity of performAction is necessary. Another one I'll toss out for consideration is handle but I'm not a huge fan of it, it feels like it's the wrong end.

I agree that getState can be somewhat confusing, but it's not bad. I don't mind getAtom and it solves the react overlap. It may lead people to clojurescript though... :smile:

[dbrans]

dispatch seems like a strange name for a function that takes an action and produces a new application state based on that action.

How about reduce?

[clearjs]

+1 for apply and getAtom. State usually implies mutability, so Atom is a good hint.

[clearjs]

When dispatch is invoked, action creator has already finished execution, so an action has been performed. What is left is to apply it to the Atom.

[gaearon]

I'm not a fan of apply because of the potential confusion with function apply method.

[clearjs]

update is another alternative, but it's not perfect either.