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=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,66bc6b039f1e005d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Laurent Guerby Subject: Re: Three simple questions Date: 2000/10/14 Message-ID: <86aec7tl59.fsf@acm.org>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 681424517 References: <2BED68CA963D6D55.A78776F656DA0452.75A61ED22116F1B6@lp.airnews.net> <39E47BAC.8DB1AD0B@acm.org> X-Trace: front5m.grolier.fr 971542618 14235 194.158.111.200 (14 Oct 2000 16:56:58 GMT) Organization: Club-Internet (France) NNTP-Posting-Date: 14 Oct 2000 16:56:58 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 2000-10-14T16:56:58+00:00 List-Id: kenner@lab.ultra.nyu.edu (Richard Kenner) writes: > [...] Some would say this argues in favor of underscores not being > significant either, so you couldn't have a disinct Roll_Control > variable either, but "roll underscore control" sounds a lot smoother > than saying "each cycle we set the capital r roll capital c control > variable from the average of the lower-case r roll lower-case c > control, lower-case r roll capital c control, and capital r roll > lower-case c control variables"! Nice example ;-). As for underscores, if you put them consistently between words, you don't even need to mention them while discussing your program. And since Ada identifiers cannot begin with, have two consecutive or end with an underscore, there's no problem at all. Note that this issue transcend programming languages and goes up to the more general human-computer interface field. Having case sensitivity there is even worse and sometimes can be dangerous (source of big mistakes once someone introduce XYZ and XYz in the system...). The software I work on for my company (in Ada) has an API based on names (object/attibute), and we follow and document the Ada rules for the allowed set of names. Other software is written on top of usually using another language (C, C++, Java, VB, you name it) by other developpers. This layer often adds case sensitivity (ignoring our documention rationale) and I remember a meeting with a manager who asked the guyes who did the software in C++ using our API "are you sure case sensitivity is a good idea". Needless to say, after a meaningful silence the consensus was "no", but the software wasn't changed because it would be too costly... -- Laurent Guerby