Re: Long names are doom ?

[Pete Thompson <blackpete@nowhere.somewhere.anywhere.com>]

On Fri, 1 Jun 2001 15:38:58 -0400, "Marin David Condic"
<marin.condic.auntie.spam@pacemicro.com> wrote:

I hate to cross-post, but...

<snip>

>The only real gripe I've got with the C/C++/Java crowd about naming
>conventions is that whole business of slurring everything together as if
>space isn't useful. TheNamesLikeThis just annoy me! What? Underscores (or
>hyphens or tic-marks or whatever the language uses...) are some kind of
>blasphemy in the various sects of C-ism? That, and I never liked any
>language or OS that was case-sensitive. (Note: This is personal taste and I
>won't even begin to try to justify it with science or logic. I hate it.
>That's enough. Its settled. Don't get caught doing it when I'm in charge.)
>(Nice little bit of flame-bait there, eh? We can resurrect one of those old
>debates that keeps cropping up periodically, right? :-)

Methinks it would be far more productive to simply let the team members get
their job done rather than worrying about whether they're adhering to your
personal tastes instead of theirs...

Anyways, regarding the underscore.  I'm a C/C++ programmer (now learning Java)
and I don't like the underscore because of its location on my keyboard, and it
affects my typing speed.  C/C++ are terse languages.  Being terse allows you to
do more in a shorter period of time.  I like using the i++ statement instead of
i = i + 1.   I like being able to code as fast as my train of thought allows
me, and having to pause to type out the underscores can throw me off.  Typing
This_Is_A_Variable takes me far longer than typing ThisIsAVariable.  Reading
the code isn't much of an issue as long as you capitalize each word in the
variable name.  Yes, 'Thisisavariable' would be quite horrible.

Another issue about the underscore's location on the keyboard:   I avoid it as
much as possible to cut down on the risks of carpal tunnel.  The side of my
right hand is already getting sore from having to reach over for +, =, {, }, \,
backspace, and enter.  Throwing the underscore in there would just make it
worse and more painful.

You know, now that I look more closely at my keyboard, it does seem like
there's an awful lot of keys for my right pinky finger to press.  Maybe Dvorak
was onto something after all...