GetRock is the proper way to name a function in most programming evironments.

Perhaps, but "proper" in this case simply means established by fiat or by convention.

Underscorces are a bane of readable code.

No.

The data show exactly the opposite, and have for many years. BiCaps arose not from readability concerns, but from limited linker symbol namespaces. Some would not allow underscores, while others respected only a fixed prefix of the symbol and thus required the first n characters of a symbol to be unique.

Readability studies have repeatedly confirmed that multi-word symbols are perceived more quickly and correctly when the words appear in a graphical arrangement closest to their English spacing. The readability studies that originally favored bi-caps compared them not against underscored symbols, but against purely lower-case symbols without any attempt to separate words.

Thus the hierarchy of readability goes (from worst to best):

getrock
GetRock
get_rock

Differentiation by capitalization is valid (for readability) only in acronyms. Thus the hierarchy for acronymic symbols goes:

HttpFoo
http_foo
HTTP_foo

I once had to delay shipment on a product while software engineers searched two days for a bug that turned out to be an error distinguishing between uppercase V and lowercase v.

BiCaps are not your friend.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

Don't forget, the Saturn V sent Apollo all the way to the Moon. It was capable of lifting much more to low earth orbit. In fact, if we replaced the third stage with a heavy payload, as was done during the launch of Skylab, the Saturn V could deliver four times as much payload to LEO as the Space Shuttle, and that's using only 45% more propellant. The problem with the Saturn V is that the occasions when that much lift capacity is needed are rare.

But individual payloads are becoming lighter and smaller, leading to shared launches to reduce launch costs. A Saturn V delivering a dozen satellites -- each with a payload assist module to transfer it to its final orbit -- might provide a lower barrier to space commerce.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

At its root you could argue that all exploration actually is would be data collection. The discovering of the unknown so to speak.

The discovery of the unknown includes data collection, but it is not limited to data collection.

Even in Apollo there was a combination of automated and manual data collection. A camera is a camera, whether it's operated by an astronaut or by a robot. Either way you get a photograph. The difference is in the tight coupling of a human brain to the data collection process. It's not a matter of the ability to collect data, but the intuition to know where to look for data, and to adapt the study on the fly. Telepresence is just not good for that. A geologist can tell a lot about a rock by just how it feels when he bangs on it with his hammer. There are plenty of examples of expertise in observation that just aren't translatable to machine automation.

Now the point about making the best use of limited funds is certainly valid. I'm not saying manned exploration is better in all respects. It's better in the same way that hand-detailing is better than driving your car through an automated washer. You get a higher quality product, but you pay for it. Since space travel in all its forms is currently very expensive, and the willingness of the public to expend resources on it is limited, prudent financial management is the rule. But just because your budget forces you to eat mac-and-cheese six days a week doesn't mean you won't enjoy saving up for that 16-oz 30-day-aged steak on Saturday night.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

Ah, the good old K&R style... ;-)
Nowadays, I'd go with "getRock" as a method of the "spirit"-instance of the Rover-object... ;-)

Harald

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

Well color my position on the subject moderated to Human\Robot exploration is the wave of the future. I've been convinced.