Re: ISO Studies of underscores vs MixedCase in Ada or C++

[Mad Hamish <h_laws@aardvark.net.au>]

On Fri, 26 Sep 2003 15:40:00 GMT, "Frank J. Lhota"
<NOSPAM.lhota.adarose@verizon.net> wrote:

>Underscores are basically a way to provide spaces in an identifier. Since
>identifiers are generally phrases (nown phrases for objects, verb phrases
>for procedures) and phrases often consist of more than one word, I find the
>use of underscores to be quite natural.
>
>The opposing argument is that underscores are too large, and that a case
>change is a more readable way to indicate how to divide the decomposition
>into words. To me, the upper / lower case method of delineate the words in
>an indentifier has always looked like the transcript of a very fast talker.
>Yes, you can make out the words, but just barely. Moreover, the use of
>letter case to delineate words prohibits any other use of letter case. It
>rules out using all caps for a certain category of identifiers, for example.
>
>There is an easy way to test which convention is more readable. Here is one
>of Shakespeare's sonnets rendered in the mixed case format:
>
>    FromFairestCreaturesWeDesireIncrease,
>    ThatTherebyBeautysRoseMightNeverDie,
>    ButAsTheRiperShouldByTimeDecease,
>    HisTenderHeirMightBearHisMemory:
>    ButThouContractedToThineOwnBrightEyes,
>    FeedstThyLightsFlameWithSelfSubstantialFuel,
>    MakingAFamineWhereAbundanceLies,
>    ThySelfThyFoeToThySweetSelfTooCruel:
>    ThouThatArtNowTheWorldsFreshOrnament,
>    AndOnlyHeraldToTheGaudySpring,
>    WithinThineOwnBudBuriestThyContent,
>    AndTenderChurlMakstWasteInNiggarding:
>    PityTheWorldOrElseThisGluttonBe,
>    ToEatTheWorldsDueByTheGraveAndThee
>
>It may be a matter of taste, but I certainly found the original sonnet to be
>more readable and more beautiful.
>
But produces more compilation errors.
Hence the mixed case format must be better for programming.
-- 
"Hope is replaced by fear and dreams by survival, most of us get by."
Stuart Adamson 1958-2001

Mad Hamish
Hamish Laws
h_laws@aardvark.net.au