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From: Louis Tribble <letribble@msmail4.hac.com>
Subject: Re: Language Choice and Coding style
Date: 1996/06/21
Message-ID: <31CAD534.41C6@msmail4.hac.com>#1/1
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Date: 1996-06-21T00:00:00+00:00
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Nasser Abbasi wrote:
> I'd like to know why do C and C++ programmer
> 
> pchWriteInThisStargeAndHardToReadWayLikeThis while the Ada 
> programmers
> 
> Write_In_Clear_And_Nice_Way_Like_This ??

Two thoughts, for what they're worth:

(1) Typing skills may be a factor for some people. I don't touch type 
the top row as reliably as the other rows, so underscores slow me down 
(nevertheless, I _do_ use them).

(2) In languages like C, naming conventions are often used to simulate 
multiple visible name spaces (excuse the C, but the example fails in 
Ada):

    typedef struct Sequence_type Sequence;
    extern void sequence_create (...
    extern void sequence_insert (...
    extern void sequence_remove (...

Since there is no scope separator like the . in Ada or the :: in C++, 
the underscore gets pressed into service. If it is also used as the 
word separator, an informal ambiguity is introduced:

    typedef struct Sequence_Partial_type Sequence_Partial;
    extern void sequence_partial_create (...
    extern void sequence_partial_insert (...
    extern void sequence_partial_remove (...
    .
    .
    Sequence_Partial* dependents;
    .
    .
    while (sequence_partial_length (dependents)) {
        node = sequence_partial_remove (dependents);
        node_destroy (node);
    }

Avoiding the underscore as a word separator can help a (human) reader 
automatically discard the prefix and focus on the "meaningful" part of 
the name when the name appears in a context where the prefix is 
obvious:

    typedef struct SequencePartial_type SequencePartial;
    extern void sequencepartial_create (...
    extern void sequencepartial_insert (...
    extern void sequencepartial_remove (...
    .
    .
    SequencePartial* dependents;
    .
    .
    while (sequencepartial_length (dependents)) {
        node = sequencepartial_remove (dependents);
        node_destroy (node);
    }


Louis Tribble
letribble@msmail4.hac.com (until the mail scheme changes yet again...)