Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!seismo!mcvax!nikhefh!i91
From: i91@nikhefh.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
Subject: Re: So what's wrong with Aegis?
Message-ID: <287@nikhefh.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Jun-87 06:13:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: nikhefh.287
Posted: Fri Jun  5 06:13:48 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Jun-87 11:56:42 EDT
References: <668935@ub.cc.umich.edu>
Reply-To: i91@nikhefh.UUCP (Fons Rademakers)
Distribution: world
Organization: Nikhef-H, Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
Lines: 36

In article <668935@ub.cc.umich.edu> Bruce_Howard@UB.CC.UMICH.EDU writes:
>Most of what David Krowitz points out is true.  I must disagree,
>however, on one point: the naming scheme for function calls.  I
>find the inclusion of a $ in names quite obnoxious.  This serves
>only to maintain the largely artificial difference between system
>(kernel) calls and library function calls.  As systems isolate
>the programmer from the specific hardware more and more, such
>naming segregation really is not necessary in most cases.
> 
>The naming scheme, while resulting in descriptive function names,
>also results in function names that are too long and too similiar
>to each other.  When I quickly scan down a section of code, a
>series of function calls beginning with the same words are easily
>confused.
> 
I, in return, have to disagree with this. One major problem with the
Unix system and function calls is that they have very trivial names,
which easily can result in name clashes between user routines and system
routines. We for example in the High Energy Physics world work in huge
collaborations with a lot of different computers (mostly VAX, IBM, Cray).
Now it happened that somebody wrote a subroutine package in which the
trivial name TOPEN is used. This package is used heavily throughout
the collaboration. Now changed our institute to an Unix machine and what
happens, TOPEN (3F) turns out to be a Unix routine to open a tape file.
And, of course, a lot of our programs need both routines in the same
program ===> CLASH!!!
A lot of problems could have been avoided if the Unix system naming scheme
would have been more like that of Apollo or VAX (with $ and _).

Regards, Fons Rademakers

-- 
Org:    NIKHEF-H, National Institute for Nuclear and High-Energy Physics.
Mail:   Kruislaan 409, P.O. Box 41882, 1009 DB Amsterdam, the Netherlands
UUCP:   {decvax,cernvax,uck,unido,vmucnam,seismo}!mcvax!nikhefh!i91
BITNET: nikhefh!i91@mcvax.bitnet                    Telex: 10262 (hef nl)