[TRACKER] More API renames for Godot 4.0

[akien-mga]

This is a follow-up to the mega tracker #16863 which we've used for the past 3 years to keep a list of things we'd like to rename in the API for Godot 4.0.

Many of these renames have been done, some are still pending with open PRs, others might actually not be wanted, as we didn't do thorough discussion of all proposals on that issue.

Now that we're getting closer to the 4.0 release, it's time to give this a second look, and start anew from the current API.

Are there more classes, methods, properties, or signals, which have an awkward name and could be improved before we freeze the API to preserve compatibility?

Here's my workflow proposal for this tracker:

• Add your suggestions as comments below. Include links to relevant proposals or issues/comments if they exist (but you don't necessarily need to open a proposal for it, unless it's a very substantial change to the API).
• Upvote the proposals you support, downvotes the ones you disagree with. Don't take downvotes personally, we need to assess the general feeling of the community for a given proposal to see if it makes sense to rename, beyond core maintainers' own intuition.
• If you're motivated, you can also salvage unresolved suggestions from [TRACKER] Methods, properties and signals to consider for renaming in next planned compatibility breakage #16863 so they are considered again here (beware, there are 500 comments...).
• Suggestions (not approved yet, so don't open PRs for them) will be listed by repo maintainers in the second comment of this issue.
• Avoid lengthy discussions of suggestions in this tracker, as it makes it hard to keep track of things. Prefer discussion on the Contributor Chat, and if needed, open dedicated proposals for non-consensual suggestions that require more debate.
• After review, approved suggestions will be moved to the task list below in this first comment, so they can be implemented by contributors and merged.

Important: This tracker is only for API renames. I.e. changing a name to another name, not changing behavior, adding/removing logic, etc. Anything that changes the behavior of the engine should be discussed in a proposal on https://github.com/godotengine/godot-proposals.

For this tracker, let's also exclude suggestions for changes in the Project Settings and Editor Settings. Those should probably have their own trackers, as the settings do need a cleanup for 4.0.

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Approved renames

None yet.

[akien-mga]

Suggested renames

Classes

Methods

Properties

Signals

Enums

Constants

Theme properties

[arkology]

Array (some changes also apply to PackedArrays) #16863 (comment):

• Rename remove to remove_at (remove by index) to avoid ambiguity: Rename remove() to remove_at() when removing by index #50139
• Rename erase to remove_value (remove by value) to avoid ambiguity

A comment: With current names you should keep in mind the difference (and/or periodically read the docs to remember the difference).

[aaronfranke]

@arkology For reference, there is a PR for renaming remove to remove_at: #50139

display/window/size/test_width and test_height should be renamed to window_width and window_height. We should also consider renaming the width and height settings, maybe render_width and render_height, or viewport_width and viewport_height. #16863 (comment) This already has a PR open here: #47522

[Calinou]

Suggestion: rename the GlobalScope PROPERTY_USAGE_NOEDITOR to PROPERTY_USAGE_NO_EDITOR. This would be consistent with constants such as Object's PROPERTY_HINT_COLOR_NO_ALPHA.

We may want to go through all constants that contain _NO and see if any others need to modified this way.

Edit: Done in #54571.

[clayjohn]

Shader builtin matrices rename suggestions

Spatial Shaders

• WORLD_MATRIX rename to MODEL_TO_WORLD
• WORLD_NORMAL_MATRIX rename to MODEL_TO_WORLD_NORMAL
• MODELVIEW_MATRIX rename to MODEL_TO_VIEW
• MODELVIEW_NORMAL_MATRIX rename to MODEL_TO_VIEW_NORMAL
• CAMERA_MATRIX rename to VIEW_TO_WORLD
• INV_CAMERA_MATRIX rename to WORLD_TO_VIEW
• PROJECTION_MATRIX rename to VIEW_TO_CLIP
• INV_PROJECTION_MATRIX rename to CLIP_TO_VIEW

CanvasItem Shaders

• WORLD_MATRIX rename to MODEL_TO_WORLD
• CANVAS_MATRIX rename to WORLD_TO_CANVAS
• SCREEN_MATRIX rename to CANVAS_TO_SCREEN

[qarmin]

Here is list of all classes, signals, functions etc. exposed in GDScript from Godot 3 and 4 - I used this for creating script converter, but maybe this will help to see what thing needs to be renamed

Godot 3 62f56af
classes3.txt
constants3.txt
enums3.txt
functions3.txt
properties3.txt
signals3.txt

All3.zip

Godot 4 b2ab5cb
classes4.txt
constants4.txt
enums4.txt
functions4.txt
properties4.txt
signals4.txt

All4.zip

[MagdielM]

I'm not sure what I would replace it with, but AnimatedSprite may mislead newcomers into thinking Sprite2D nodes can't be animated.

[KoBeWi]

search_in_file_extensions in Project Settings should be renamed to find_in_files_extensions, to be consistent with Script Editor naming.

[spindlebink]

It's a big one, but may I submit CanvasItem's update() -> request_redraw() or update_canvas() or something like that? Since CanvasItem is base for 2D nodes, we have node types way down the line which all share an update function which doesn't really communicate what it is that's being updated.