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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 10ad19,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid10ad19,public X-Google-Thread: 107a89,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid107a89,public X-Google-Thread: 101deb,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid101deb,public X-Google-Thread: 1073c2,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid1073c2,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 10a146,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid10a146,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-05-25 19:22:26 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!easynews!sjc-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!iad-read.news.verio.net.POSTED!kilgallen From: Kilgallen@eisner.decus.org.nospam (Larry Kilgallen) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.awk,comp.lang.clarion,comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.lang.pl1,comp.lang.vrml Subject: Re: Long names are doom ? Message-ID: References: <3B0DBD4A.82943473@my-deja.net> Organization: LJK Software Date: 25 May 2001 07:11:37 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 216.44.122.34 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verio.net X-Trace: iad-read.news.verio.net 990789102 216.44.122.34 (Fri, 25 May 2001 11:11:42 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 11:11:42 GMT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:7795 comp.lang.awk:2609 comp.lang.clarion:20385 comp.lang.java.programmer:70951 comp.lang.pl1:648 comp.lang.vrml:3334 Date: 2001-05-25T07:11:37-05:00 List-Id: In article <3B0DBD4A.82943473@my-deja.net>, 00001111 <00001111@my-deja.net> writes: > Anybody use variables/names longer than 31 character > and finds it really useful ? Absolutely. > Then please respond why, where, when. In an Ada package automatically generated from ASN.1 specifications. The long names contain the exact derivation of each identifier, based on combining the names used for the ASN.1 modules from which they are derived and their names within those modules. > I have folks here in comp.lang.fortran who will die claiming that they > > - "never seen a well written, legible program > that uses any identifiers longer than 18-20 characters..". > - "long variables names are *hard* to read. And, you have to > read though all the characters of every instance of them...". > - "it degrades the legibility of a program to use identifiers that > can't be easily remembered...." Yes, the identifiers are hard to read, but that is better than having the information missing. Recently I had the opportunity to read some code in C that regularly exceeds a length of 31 characters. I tried (before I understood my compiler for C, not my native language) to come up with shorter names for these identifiers, and found that my human-shortened names were _never_ as meaningful as the original for someone who understands the problem domain. > As a result, despite 90% of computer languages have long, very > long or 'infinite' identifiers, fortran folks seems plan to stay > with their 6...aargh ...sorry this was just not far ago... 31 character > limit intil year 3000. Those who implement Ada compilers are required to support at least 200 characters. I made the mistake of inadvertently going over that limit on a more permissive compiler, only to redo the generator when I tried to use the result on a less permissive compiler. You would be well advised to require at least the capability for a warning at whatever the minimum number of siginificant characters is to be.