Standardize get_*, add_*, delete_*, and update_* function names

[filosofo]

Of the approximately 500 or so functions like get_*, add_*, delete_*, and update_*, all except about 20 follow the format of separating each word with underscores, like so: get_attached_file (as opposed to get_attachedfile).

Those 20 that don't make things confusing and should be deprecated. This has already happened to some degree (take a look at the existing functions in wp-includes/deprecated.php).

This is not just a pedantic fix. Is it get_user_meta or get_usermeta, get_post_meta or get_postmeta? (One uses underscores, the other doesn't. I have to look up which is which almost every time I use them, and that's a lot).

To make things more confusing, we have similar-yet-inconsistently-named functions such as update_post_meta and update_postmeta_cache.

Someone may object that some of these are too much a part of WordPress to be changed. Not to worry--they can sit in deprecated.php for a long time, if you want. Besides, it won't be the first time that well-used functions have been deprecated (get_postdata and the user_can* functions, for example).

So please, let's deprecate these while it's early in 2.8 development.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

-1 on the _user_meta functions. they behave too differently from the _post_meta functions.

see: #7540

[filosofo]

Replying to Denis-de-Bernardy:

-1 on the _user_meta functions. they behave too differently from the _post_meta functions.

I think perhaps I wasn't very clear. I want to change the names because of syntax, not semantics: it doesn't matter whether the functions are exactly parallel in meaning or behavior (Will's patch could go either way and I'd recommend the same thing).

The point is that something like 95% of WordPress functions follow the syntax of separating nouns and verbs with underscores. That overwhelming majority in practice suggests, to me, a standard.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

oh, I should have been more clear. I wasn't meaning it was a bad idea, just that it would make sense to reserve those user_meta names for fixed up versions of those functions (see the other ticket)

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

patches no longer all apply cleanly.

[ryan]

Some of these have been cleaned up. The rest likely won't be. Resolving.