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Newsgroups: comp.software-eng,comp.programming,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: ISO Studies of underscores vs MixedCase in Ada or C++
Reply-To: bauhaus@futureapps.de
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From: Georg Bauhaus <georg@strudel.futureapps.de>
Date: 29 Sep 2003 19:34:42 +0200
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Xref: news1.google.com comp.software-eng:53 comp.programming:422
 comp.lang.c++:999 comp.lang.ada:193
Date: 2003-09-29T19:34:42+02:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

>>>>> "Frank" == Frank J Lhota <NOSPAM.lhota.adarose@verizon.net> writes:

: Since identifiers are generally phrases (nown phrases
: for objects, verb phrases for procedures) and phrases often consist
: of more than one word, I find the use of underscores to be quite
: natural.

But we should, I think, consider non-phrases or almost-non-phrases
being used as identifiers, and "juxtapositions" of identifiers.  The
isolated identifiers might be shorter and thus more easily broken
into parts during the "reading process".

  theFools(42);

  the_fools (42);

  the_Fools(42);

  The_Fools (42);
 
...

  y := doYouMind.ifI();

  y := do_you_mind.if_i ();

  y := do_You_Mind.if_I();

  y := Do_You_Mind.If_I ();


  takeAction(doYouMind.ifI(openTheWindow));

  take_action (do_you_mind.if_i (open_the_window));

  take_Action (do_You_Mind.if_I(open_The_Window));

  Take_Action (Do_You_Mind.If_I (Open_The_Window));

So in context, your "Shakespearean" argument might still apply,
even if short identifiers are readable in dense mixed case?

: There is an easy way to test which convention is more readable. Here
: is one of Shakespeare's sonnets rendered in the mixed case format:

:     FromFairestCreaturesWeDesireIncrease,


Also, looking closely at letters, fonts certainly do matter.
In a string such as "glubf()" it might or might not be easy
to distinguish the two characters 'f' and '('. It depends on
how ink would be spread, or on how pixels would appear on some
display screen. You can see this comparing foo(a) and oof(a),
using different fonts for the letters and symbols.

Georg