Hello, everybody,
In 1992, I presented in a PPIG workshop a paper
related to natural naming. Natural naming in programming
means simply that you should not use abbreviations in
the names (identifiers, symbols) when you write computer
programs. Instead, all the names of methods, classes,
variables, constants, etc. should be constructed of
several natural words. In my opinion and experience,
the use of natural names makes programs more readable
and understandable, and, in particular, trying to
invent descriptive names during the process of program
creation stimulates the thinking process and reduces
programming errors.
My obsession towards the use of natural names has
continued since the early 90s. It is, though, very
difficult to scientifically prove that indeeed abbreviations
should be avoided in programming. What I have noticed
during the last decade is that natural names have
become popular in standard classes and methods of
programming languages like Java and C#, but it is
still quite popular to use abbreviations when
programs are written with these languages.
During the last ten years I have been teaching
students with material that contains progarms with
natural names. It seems that some students who
use natural names in their programs seem to perform
very well, but, on the other hand, there are still
students to whom programming is difficult. During
the recent years I have produced a couple of books
in which all programs are written with natural
names. Sample pages of these books can be found
via the address http://www.naturalprogramming.com/
To quikly learn the basic operating principles
of computers, I have developed a simple imaginary
computer. For the imaginary computer there is a
quite nice simulator which is available in address
http://www.naturalprogramming.com/IC8/index_for_ic8.html
Those pages of my recent book which explain the
imaginary computer are freely available via the
mentioned addresses.
The imaginary computer should be studied before
a person really starts to study computer programming.
My opinion is that a person should first know
the basic principles of computer operation before
he or she can learn to write computer programs.
I there is somebody interested in my old research
papers, something can be found at
http://www.naturalprogramming.com/free_downloads.html
Best regards,
Kari
--
Mr. (Dr.) Kari Laitinen
Oulu Institute of Technology, Finland
http://www.naturalprogramming.com/
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