Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cca!g-rh
From: g-rh@cca.CCA.COM (Richard Harter)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Readable names (was Re: case sensitivity)
Message-ID: <25548@cca.CCA.COM>
Date: 15 Mar 88 11:47:37 GMT
References: <2318@bsu-cs.UUCP> <2835@enea.se> <1810@sics.se>
Reply-To: g-rh@CCA.CCA.COM.UUCP (Richard Harter)
Organization: Computer Corp. of America, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 18

In article <2835@enea.se> sommar@enea.UUCP(Erland Sommarskog) writes:
>More seriously I think the use of mixed key in identifier names is a
>virtue. Why call something averylongnamewhichyoubarelycannotread when
>you can call AVeryLongNameWhichIsYetEasyToReadAtFirstGlance? OK, you
>may use underscores instead of case shifts. However, there is a drawback
>if the compiler has low limit of significant characters.

Just a note -- it is my experience that long (readable) identifier names
should not be used.  They appear to make a program more readable and
self documenting, and so on.  However there are two disadvantages:
The first is that they make code very bulky; secondly it is harder to
keep track of names.  I.e. you have to remember, at each writing, the
exact words used in the name.
-- 

In the fields of Hell where the grass grows high
Are the graves of dreams allowed to die.
	Richard Harter, SMDS  Inc.