Re: Spell-checking source code

["Jakob Bieling" <netsurf@gmy.net>]

"Peter Bushell" <DELETEnewsreplyALL@software-inCAPStegrity.com> wrote:

> "Jakob Bieling" <netsurf@gmy.net> wrote:

> > "Jacob Sparre Andersen" <sparre@crs4.it> wrote:

> >     Also, sometimes I tend to abbreviate quite a lot, so that later I
> might
> > not know what it stands for. In cases like those I just put a comment
next
> > to where I declared the variable and I can keep saving those keystrokes.

> If you can't remember what it meant, pity the poor engineer who has to
> maintain your code when you've gone! Having to look up a declaration every
> few seconds is not acceptable.

    You do not have to. All declarations (loop counters etc. are an
exception) are at the beginning of the function, along with possible
comments. And for those identifiers where comments are necessary, I do not
think it is impossible to remember them.

> There is evidence* to suggest that 80% of programming is (or should be)
> thinking time. Saving keystrokes is therefore not an issue.

    True, but it is still pretty annoying to type all kinds of variable
names out (we are talking about long names, anything over 10 letters,
right?) all the time you use them. The 'burden' of remembering 5 or 6 names
for which you always see the abbreviations is less, in my opinion.

    To avoid misunderstandings, I do not approve using abbreviations for all
kinds of variables. But I do find it acceptable to use my way of
abbreviating (including comments) for function local variables.

hth
--
jb

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