Re: Easily-Read C++?

[dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)]

The point that C and C++ programmers tend to use abreviations and in general
short identifiers, where as Ada programmers tend to use long fully spelled
out names is a pretty important one. Because, good choice of names is often
critical to readability of code (more critical than the basic syntactic
structure of the language -- Basic with good names can be much more readable
than Ada with junk short names).

So, it isn't a language issue at all? right? you can perfectly well use nice
names in C++ (or for that matter Basic) if you want to.

Well, I am not so sure that this is not a language issue. THe trouble with
C, inherited by C++, is that it has a lot of very neat notations that 
somehow are much nicer and neater with short names (much the same could
be said of many traditional mathematical notations, mathematicians tend
to call a function f, rather than Second_Order_Bessel_Function, but then
their "programs" are usually short).

    i++

that's a nice neat notation, especially when composed in a complex
expression, but

    Average_Daily_Rate_Of_Pay++

makes people laugh (I tell that as a joke, and C programmers as well as
Ada programmers laugh).

somehow, the ++ just ain't so neat in the context of long names.

How important is this effect? I don't know! 
To what extent does it explain the empirical observation of difference
 in style between C++ programmers and Ada programmers? I don't know!

I hasten to add that the universal quantifiers here are of course bogus,
not ALL C++ programmers choose junk names, and not all Ada programmers
choose good names (the most noticable counter examples I have seen in
both cases come from recently translplanted programmers, C++ programmers
trying to write Ada, or vice versa).

I would also add to this thread that the mere fact that there exists a
person who can easily read X does not mean that X is readable. I once
had a student who gaily wrote thousands of lines of uncommented assembly
language, and could read it just fine :-)