Long names, though help self document, make reading difficult. This is not a problem unique to programming. News articles and technical papers use acronyms to simplify. First they list out the full name then put an acronym in parentheses after it. Then use the acronym in the rest of the article. Like this - "National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)" or "Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)". After a time some common acronyms are used so much that everyone recognizes the acronym and it is no longer even necessary to give the full name. Just use the acronym.
A similar thing could be done for large programs. At the top comment the acronym to be used in the program and its full name. For me, after a while, I recognize the acronym immediately and I don't have to use or type long names. On Thu, Aug 11, 2016 at 8:42 AM, Erling Hellenäs <erl...@erlinghellenas.se> wrote: > > > On 2016-08-11 16:23, Tracy Harms wrote: > >> On Aug 11, 2016 10:09 AM, "Erling Hellenäs" <erl...@erlinghellenas.se> >> wrote: >> >>> In most common programing >>> languages today names of functions >>> and variables are long. The program >>> and the environment is often complex. >>> Long names are needed to describe >>> complex operations in a complex >>> environment. >>> >> Names can be long in J. There is a cultural norm for using short names in >> J, one that can be traced back to algebra and other writing practices that >> pre-date computers, but it isn't a language feature. This entire topic >> seems disconnected from both your alternative notation and your criticisms >> of the J language. >> > Yes, I said: > "I can see no reason whatsoever to try to make the syntax extremely terse." > > Raul said: > "There actually are reasons to use short names - they are faster to > > type, they fit in tweets, and they are more manageable in a "let's try > another variation of this again" than the longer names. That said, you > can look at things like OpenGL as a counter example - here, we have > long names and lots of them. But here also we have problems with > people declaring frequently used chunks of it "deprecated" despite how > many frequently used things would break if people actually stopped > supporting the older stuff." > > It seems like a deviation from the original subject, yes. I talk about > words in the meaning of J words like verbs, adverbs and conjunctions. Maybe > Raul misunderstood or its he's just generalizing. Or I misunderstood him. > > > >> If you want to use long names in J, go ahead and do so. >> > Yes, you can. I did and showed in the forums. I never saw anyone else do > it. > > >> Tracy Harms >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm >> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
