Re: Ada Operators in 9x

[cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.]

emery@goldfinger.mitre.org (David Emery) writes:

>On the other hand, it's a source of great frustration to have to work
>off syntax errors because you forgot the cApitalization conventioN.

Exactly. I heard a good rule of thumb yesterday - code should be written
so that it can be read and understood over the phone. Not that one would
do this, but the idea is that our memory seems more closely tied to what
we hear and verbalize, not what we see (actually, the sense of smell is
most effectively tied into memory, but that doesn't help just yet).

In other words, identifiers should have a unique pronunciation.
The presence of unique identifiers which differ only by their case
results in code that is harder to understand (and therefore maintain).

On a related issues, I have also heard (and believe) that mixed case is
easier to read than all upper or all lower. We tend to recognize words
by their shape moreso than their spelling. SINCE ALL UPPER CASE IS MORE
OF A BLOCK-LIKE STRUCTURE, IT IS INCREMENTALLY HARDER FOR THE BRAIN TO
"SEE" WHAT IS WRITTEN. Mixed case has more of an inherent "shape". Plus,
it seems like I'm yelling when I write in all uppers.

This has strayed from a mainline Ada discussion, but it sure beats
griping about DoD policy for once.

-- 
Mike Berman
University of Maryland, Baltimore County     Fastrak Training, Inc.
berman@umbc.edu                              (301)924-0050
       The views represented in the above post are my own.