From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_DATE autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,1ff5003422436e4 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-10-05 18:06:30 PST Path: bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!zip.eecs.umich.edu!panix!cmcl2!thecourier.cims.nyu.edu!thecourier.cims.nyu.edu!nobody From: dewar@cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Easily-Read C++? Date: 5 Oct 1994 09:28:03 -0400 Organization: Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences Message-ID: <36u9l3$2bb@gnat.cs.nyu.edu> References: <941005030023_73672.2025_DHR103-1@CompuServe.COM> <36tsda$s32@disunms.epfl.ch> NNTP-Posting-Host: gnat.cs.nyu.edu Date: 1994-10-05T09:28:03-04:00 List-Id: 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 :-)