Say I have a system that I want to enable or disable, what do you think is best: to write two separate functions EnableSystem() and DisableSystem() OR have a singular function with the parameter to indicate the desired state, SystemState(bool state)?
I was wondering if there is a standard for this or a preference?
I would argue that having two separate functions is better since different things might happen under those functions but what if it is the situation where it really is just as simple as a 1 or a 0. Example if we have an LED we want to turn on an off it would just be passing the value of the parameter state.
Situation one:
void LEDEnable() {
GPIOPinSet(LED_PIN, true);
}
void LEDDisable() {
GPIOPinSet(LED_PIN, false);
}
Situation two:
void LEDState(bool state) {
GPIOPinSet(LED_PIN, state);
}
Ideally, any function should be idempotent and maximally expressive. If I’m reading code and I hit setState(bool) then I have to go find where the bool is set. toggle() is worse. Foo.enable() is perfect because when I hit that code I only need ordinary domain knowledge to understand. Similarly, prefer isEnabled() to getState(). IsDisabled() is a little iffy, but I like it because it helps streaming functions to read a bit easier to have both, but it depends on the language you’re using. Java is notorious for its verbosity, but I like it.