Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by fault1 1646 days ago
DataFramesMeta is great!

But I always get confused by the name. Since DataFrames.jl is lower level shouldn't that be DataFramesBase.jl and the meta package be DataFrames.jl?

2 comments

Yes it absolutely needs a new name!
The convention in Julia is that a package that defines a type Abc is called Abcs.jl. Also, DataFrames.jl provides its own manipulation functions which DataFramesMeta is a wrapper around using metaprogramming, hence the name.
That makes sense, but I still think the meta name is confusing. I mean, as a user the fact that it was implemented using metaprogramming techniques has no bearing, it's an implementation detail. Actually, my brain never thought to associate meta in this context with metaprogramming. Makes sense in hindsight, but still confusing.

But still, I can't really come up with a nicer name. VerbalDataFrames to match the dplyr verbs idiom?

Yeah, I agree it's not a good name. I think using the word macro instead of meta is more useful to the user, something like DataFramesMacros.jl.