One thing to remember about descriptive identifiers is that the compiler doesn't check whether the descriptions are accurate or not. Often they were when the code was first written, but become less so over time. Sometimes they were never accurate. One nice thing about i, j, etc. is that you aren't tempted to make assumptions about them that aren't backed up by the code. But I'm a mathematician, so I tend to have peculiar ideas about such things.
-- John Stalker School of Mathematics Trinity College Dublin tel +353 1 896 1983 fax +353 1 896 2282