From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 10ad19,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid10ad19,public X-Google-Thread: 10a146,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid10a146,public X-Google-Thread: 101deb,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid101deb,public X-Google-Thread: 107a89,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid107a89,public X-Google-Thread: 1073c2,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid1073c2,public X-Google-Thread: 11440e,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid11440e,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-05-25 07:49:58 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: mojaveg@iwvisp.com (Everett M. Greene) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ruby,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.awk,comp.lang.clarion,comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.lang.pl1,comp.lang.vrml Subject: Re: Long names are doom ? Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 07:46:47 PST Organization: none that you'd notice Message-ID: <20010525.7954A20.766D@mojaveg.iwvisp.com> References: <3B0DBD4A.82943473@my-deja.net> <3B0DD011.88FCD00E@acm.org> X-Newsreader: GRn 3.2n February 9, 1999 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ruby:9907 comp.lang.ada:7771 comp.lang.awk:2597 comp.lang.clarion:20344 comp.lang.java.programmer:70721 comp.lang.pl1:637 comp.lang.vrml:3321 Date: 2001-05-25T07:46:47-08:00 List-Id: Patricia Shanahan writes: > > 00001111 wrote: > .... > > - "it degrades the legibility of a program to use identifiers that > > can't be easily remembered...." > .... > > That is the most important single point, and the reason why long > identifiers are a good thing to have available. > > Abbreviations in identifiers make them less memorable. For a given > concept, there is the full name and possibly several ways of > abbreviating it, and anyone using it has to remember which to use. I try > to avoid them in public names, including class names. > > Also, a consistent naming system makes names more memorable. > > Sometimes, very rarely, a consistent naming scheme can lead to a > situation in which limiting the name to e.g. 31 characters would require > it to either break its naming convention or have some components > abbreviated. > > For example, take a look at the constant names in > javax.accessibility.AccessibleContext. Names such as > "ACCESSIBLE_TABLE_COLUMN_DESCRIPTION_CHANGED" could be made shorter by > either abbreviating or not using a consistent scheme, but doing so would > make them harder to remember. In Fortran I suppose it would be called > something like ACCTABCOLDESCCHNGE. Not at least in earlier versions of ANSI Fortran (6 chars). I was once involved with a (Government) project which was going to use coded identifiers for all the programming components and do it in ANSI Fortran (77?)! I was still contemplating how that was going to be done when the project was cancelled for lack of need.