Kari, > However, in my old thesis, in address >http://www.naturalprogramming.com/to_read/doctoral_thesis_of_kari_laitinen.pdf > I list on pages 34-38 many good reasons to believe > that using natural names might be a "good thing".
I will leave readers to make their own minds up about that. > It is true that I preach about the use of natural > names because I have positive personal experiences > about it, My own experience with teaching programming to raw beginners (which last occurred 25 years ago) is that they tend to use single character names, single character + digit, or words like temp. They do need some instruction on the benefits of using 'meaningful' names. > but unfortunately I cannot scientifically > prove my opinions. The epilogue of my C++ book I think you ought to prefix any recommendation about the use of natural names with this statement. > I believe that I am not the only person who preaches > against the use of abbreviations in computer programs. Abbreviations in themselves are not the problem. The problem is that there are only a few abbreviations that are widely recognised. If identifier names are intended to convey information to the reader then the semantics associated with any words, acronyms or abbreviations needs to be recognised. Kari, if you used natural names built from Finnish words I would consider them unnatural, because I don't understand Finnish. The issue is one of communication of information, not the form of communication (which can include abbreviations). > Some gradual developments suggest that people are > finding long and more natural names a "good thing". > According to my observations, the names in books > about computer programming have become longer during > the last decade or so, and the names used in class This reminds me of a claim to respectability argument made by proponents of psychic phenomena a few years ago. The claim was that publication of a paper dealing with psychic phenomena in a highly regarded, peer reviewed, journal showed how seriously the scientific community took this phenomena to be. The fact that what the paper said was less than complementary was glossed over. > I wish you a nice weekend, and, if you think that > this overcomputerized world is sometimes too hectic, > you might calm it down by using the truly slow imaginary > computer in address >http://www.naturalprogramming.com/IC8/index_for_ic8.html I think the use of human language words in identifier names can provide worthwhile benefits. However, there are other factors that need to be taken into account; also the use of natural language words does have a non-zero cost. The proof-read version of my own work was not boiled down to an empty file, i.e., the correct url is www.knosof.co.uk/cbook/sent782.pdf derek -- Derek M Jones tel: +44 (0) 1252 520 667 Knowledge Software Ltd mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Applications Standards Conformance Testing http://www.knosof.co.uk ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List ([email protected]) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
