[Bioperl-l] new/unannounced methods

[Chris Fields]

On Mar 8, 2007, at 10:38 AM, Nathan Haigh wrote:

> I've come across a couple of methods that are commented as being
> new/unannounced e.g.:
> Bio::Location::Atomic::trunc

See:

http://bugzilla.open-bio.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1572

> As it's not been documented with POD it reduces the POD coverage  
> metric.
> I wondered if it makes sense to have these types of methods initially
> made private with the use of a leading underscore until it's  
> unveiling?
> This way, programmers know not to touch the method from outside the
> module and the POD coverage doesn't see it as being missed.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Nath

That would be cheating, wouldn't it? ; >

I think if a method is intended for public consumption it should be  
vetted via Devel::Cover.  If it is obviously meant to be a private  
method then it should get the underscore and be passed over.

trunc(), judging from the bug report, doesn't seem to be a private  
method (i.e. the idea was that one could obtain a truncated location  
using this method).  If anything it needs tests and documentation,  
but apparently it doesn't work as intended (or does it?).

chris