7

This question was reopened on "English Language & Usage": https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/53683/synonyms-for-multiplexing-and-demultiplexing/

This question is related to something written in C#, but it can be answered by programmers familiar with any language, as the question pertains not to the code itself, but to naming of what the code does.

I posted a question on StackOverflow titled Multiplexing interface method calls into a single delegate and demultiplexing asking if anyone knows of any mechanism that will marshal interface method calls into invocations of a universal delegate (or single method interface) of the form object AnyCall( int method_selector, object[] arguments ) and marshal back from such invocations into the original interface method calls.

Since nothing suitable came up, I went ahead and I created such a mechanism. (If it is not clear to you what this mechanism does, please read the original question.) Then, I wrote a paper about this mechanism, which is almost ready, and I am about to publish it on CodeProject, but before I do that I need some help with my naming choices.

Naming is quite important to me, and I consider dictionary.com and thesaurus.com as programming tools, but sometimes help from native speakers is indispensable, especially when an attempt is being made to introduce a new concept, or to take an existing technique which had no special name assigned to it thus far, and give it a special name, thus promoting it to a concept.

Community
  • 1
Mike Nakis
  • 32,803

1 Answers1

3

fusion and fission?

fusion: the process of combining multiple elements into one. i.e. nuclear fusion.

fission: the process of breaking a single element into more basic parts. i.e. nuclear fission.

I like it because programmers are usually sci-fi nerds who already know what it means, it both connotes and denotes what you seem to be doing, and because there will be little doubt between cultures what you mean.

                name of action   name of performer   verb
marshaling:     fusion           fusor               fuse
unmarshaling:   fission          fissional/reactor?  fission

Another option may be coupling and decoupling.

Mike Nakis
  • 32,803
Jonathan Henson
  • 5,077