Re: Language Choice and Coding style

[The Amorphous Mass <robinson@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu>]

On 21 Jun 1996, Nasser Abbasi wrote:

> 
> Tonight I'd like to ask a question I've always been afraid to ask.
> 
> I'd like to know why do C and C++ programmer 
> 
> pchWriteInThisStargeAndHardToReadWayLikeThis while the Ada programmers 

  Except for the "Hungarian notation" silliness, the idea of 
spellingVariableNamesLikeThis was originally a Smalltalk and/or Pascal 
idiom, and it has become nearly universal in GUI libraries (again I 
think because of Smalltalk's influence).  C programmers use variable names 
like x, i, p, fp, str. :-)

> Write_In_Clear_And_Nice_Way_Like_This ??

  I have seen that as well.  That's a common unix programming idiom 
(except_that_the_names_are_often_all_lowercase) that can be found in the 
Standard C environment as well.

> Is this a cultural thing?

  I think it's a precedent thing.  The practice of squashingWordsTogether 
is firmly established in some camps, and newcomers are exposed to it and 
pick it up.  Th prct of abbr evth is cmn in oth cmps, and newcomers there
pick it up, etc.  If your first book was Learn C on the Macintosh (whose 
has a Pascal-based interface) thenYouProbablyBelongToTheFirstCamp.  If your 
first book was K&R, u prb blng to oth cmp.  If you leaned on a PC, 
vndjskaThen jkuidsYou ksldjfBelong jdtd84To zxThe nmdsadHungarian ncmqCamp.

/**James Robinson***********************            
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