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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ogicse!decwrl!orc!oli-stl!asylum!osc!jgk
From: jgk@osc.COM (Joe Keane)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Comments on proposed Eiffel language changes
Summary: Internal capitalization is horrible style.
Message-ID: <2067@osc.COM>
Date: 23 Feb 90 00:35:26 GMT
References: <48a55876.12c9a@digital.sps.mot.com> <2888@goanna.oz.au>
Reply-To: jgk@osc.osc.COM (Joe Keane)
Followup-To: comp.lang.eiffel
Organization: Object Sciences Corp., Menlo Park, CA
Lines: 23

In article <48a55876.12c9a@digital.sps.mot.com>, shelley@atc.sps.mot.com
(Norman K. Shelley) writes:
>Page 240 of "Eiffel: The Language" states that "internal upper-case letters
>...  as in putAtRight, contradicts the standard conventions of English ...
>and is not part of the recommended style."  I agree BUT must note that the
>underscore ('_') as a word separator is NOT English either.  A whitespace is
>the accepted standard but computers have troubles with whitespace in
>names/labels so what do we do?

I heartily agree with the Eiffel people here.  I remember the first time i saw
capitalization used as a word separator, as in `addLine'.  I thought it's a
complete abomination and haven't changed my mind since.  I think most people
have the same initial reaction but unfortunately manage to get over it.  I'm
undecided as to whether this style is more repulsive than simply butting the
words together, as in `addline'.

My favorite style is hypenation, as in `add-line'.  This is the prefered style
in Lisp and similar languages, and conforms exactly with English usage for
using multi-word phrases as words.  Unfortunately, in most languages this is
precluded by the fact that the hyphen character is taken to be the subtration
operator.  In these languages, IMHO the next-best choice is to separate words
with underscores in place of hyphens.  It does look a little strange to
non-programmers, but it sure beats the alternatives.