I found this Trello card, which suggests adding a recursive option to :WaitForChild(). Wouldn’t it be more intuitive to simply create a new function, :WaitForDescendant()?
And as long as we’re on the topic, perhaps deprecate the recursive option of :FindFirstChild() and create the new function :FindFirstDescendant()?
0 voters
No. You’d just be introducing API clutter. A recursive parameter is better.
How often does one actually use the recursive “FindFirstChild” form? I’m probably hovering around 1% of recursive vs. 99% nonrecursive.
When you’re searching for an object with a given name, you generally know where it’s located. The recursive option seems more like a convenience for people who don’t want to write out a bunch of FindFirstChilds/WaitForChilds.
And I think convenience isn’t the best reason to add a new method. I probably would push to go in the opposite direction (remove the recursive findFindChild) in order to simplify the API, but of course, one shouldn’t remove a feature when people may be using it.
it’s not used much because the situation doesn’t pop up much, but the inclusion of it is very helpful
Why clutter the API more when you can just use the second parameter for FindFirstChild()? I think the convenience of the function doesn’t justify why we should add one (or two) more API function(s) when the alternative is simple enough to use.
--FindFirstDescendant
local a = workspace:FindFirstChild('blah',true)
--WaitForDescendant (of course you can counter the inifinity of the loop or frequency if you want)
local a
repeat
wait()
until workspace:FindFirstChild('blah',true)
As for the recursive option for WaitForChild(), I don’t see how I would be using it, but maybe someone else will find a good use for it. It’s just whenever I’m using WaitForChild(), I always run into situations where I know what the parent is.
Those are my two cents I guess. 