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I prefer free form function names when when parenthesis aren't required after the function name. Hyphens in function names are great too.

  (member? 'a some_list)
  member?('a', some_list)  <-- ugly
  member? :a, some_list

  (check-user-credentials session user)
  (is-user-authorized? page user)


True, not having parens on the end of the function call makes this look better (and those parens are optional in Ruby). Extra kudos to lisp flavors because you could argue they have even "purer" syntax than Python.

Mostly, I'm just tickled by the idea of "would my dog bark at it?" as a mental test.


Hyphens in function names are great too

Totally agree and there are good reasons why they are useful: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1842575

BTW, While perl6 added hyphen usage to variable names :) unfortunately I don't think it added question mark :(




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