Underscore prefix

[PhilHibbs]

What's with the underscore prefixes in function names? What is the convention? I initially assumed that it was reserved fro AutoIt official use, such as the UDF library, but I sometimes see people post scripts with their own functions with an underscore prefix. If I write a generic useful routine, should I prefix it with an underscore to indicate that it is a library routine and isn't necessarily part of a specific script?

[Fulano]

As far as I can tell it's a convention. Usually I will omit it because I dislike typing that character (it's a bit of a stretch for me), and it hasn't hurt my function. Generally I will use it if I am modifying someone else's code for a forum post, but outside of that it's very rare for me to use it.

[JRowe]

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=109853

Function Names

All function names must start with an underscore (“_”). *

Each word in the function name should be capitalized.

The first word of the function name should start with a word describing a general category such as “Date”, “String”, “Array”, “Network”, etc.. If the word is too long like “Window”, then an obvious abbreviation may be used (e.g. “Win” for “Window” or “Net” for “Network”).

All function names must closely resemble the established naming convention for "internal" AutoIt functions.

People tend to use that convention for general use UDFs, but it's by no means a universal thing. If you want your code to fit in to the official AutoIt standards, then use those conventions.

Consistency is probably more important than conformity in a large body of code, so use what you're comfortable with, unless it's something that a lot of AutoIt people are going to use.