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: 11440e,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid11440e,public X-Google-Thread: 1073c2,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid1073c2,public X-Google-Thread: 101deb,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid101deb,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 107a89,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid107a89,public X-Google-Thread: 10a146,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid10a146,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-05-24 19:56:08 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-03!supernews.com!cyclone-sjo1.usenetserver.com!news-out-sjo.usenetserver.com!e420r-sjo4.usenetserver.com!news-out.usenetserver.com!newshub2.rdc1.sfba.home.com!news.home.com!news2.rdc2.tx.home.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3B0DF4FF.8A20C66D@home.com> From: Larry Elmore X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.2 i586) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 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 ? References: <3B0DBD4A.82943473@my-deja.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 02:55:46 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 65.10.25.74 X-Complaints-To: abuse@home.net X-Trace: news2.rdc2.tx.home.com 990759346 65.10.25.74 (Thu, 24 May 2001 19:55:46 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 19:55:46 PDT Organization: Excite@Home - The Leader in Broadband http://home.com/faster Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ruby:9868 comp.lang.ada:7740 comp.lang.awk:2576 comp.lang.clarion:20296 comp.lang.java.programmer:70560 comp.lang.pl1:623 comp.lang.vrml:3304 Date: 2001-05-25T02:55:46+00:00 List-Id: 00001111 wrote: > > Hi All, > > Anybody use variables/names longer than 31 character > and finds it really useful ? > > Then please respond why, where, when. > I have folks here in comp.lang.fortran who will die claiming that they > > - "never seen a well written, legible program > that uses any identifiers longer than 18-20 characters..". > - "long variables names are *hard* to read. And, you have to > read though all the characters of every instance of them...". > - "it degrades the legibility of a program to use identifiers that > can't be easily remembered...." > > As a result, despite 90% of computer languages have long, very > long or 'infinite' identifiers, fortran folks seems plan to stay > with their 6...aargh ...sorry this was just not far ago... 31 character > limit intil year 3000. I regularly use names longer than 31 characters, but it's in large part due to naming conventions in force at work (every function name must start with the name of the protocol being implemented, for example, "etsiBssmapLe3...") which eats up characters. Those rules stem from the limitations of the language, which is a proprietary extension of C. Also, I use the names provided by the specs without any attempts at abbreviations because short, abbreviated names are a false economy since whatever time is saved in typing will be be paid back tenfold later on when doing maintenance. Being completely unambiguous and avoiding any possible confusions makes future modifications _so_ much easier than trying to figure out some of the damnably cryptic abbreviations other programmers have used at work -- it's not easier reading if you have to read _5_ different source files to figure out which _1_ corresponds to a given parameter in a spec! I must say that _most_ names I use are <= 31 characters, though. Larry