Jason, > Derek> Identifier naming conventions are often mentioned. > Derek> However, I have checked many programs conformance to naming > Derek> conventions that their authors claim to be following, only > Derek> to find many exceptions. > >Just because there are exceptions doesn't mean there aren't >conventions. Conventions are not mandatory and are not (often)
Companies often have naming conventions. The big give away about them being followed is that (in the pre internet days) paper copies of these conventions were normally only to be found in some filing cabinet somewhere. >systematically checked. Moreover conventions often actually include >subtle exceptions to their general injunctions that a na�ve level of >checking might miss. I have a tool that can enforce all the company coding standards I have ever seen. Now the 'rules' (they really ought to be called habits) individuals use for creating identifier names are more complicated. But this is because they are based on the patterns (conventions) to be found in natural language. > Derek> It has been said that different languages have naming > Derek> conventions that are specific to them. I have found no > Derek> evidence for this claim (apart from Fortran names often > Derek> being short). > >Eh? The evidence is all around. For example, are you disputing that >the following is a type name, by convention, in Dylan? > > <foo> Yes, languages may have conventions that are specific to them because they support constructs that are specific to them. For instance, there is a common convention in C of declaring a typedef name with the same spelling as a tag name (measurements show this is followed for approximately 30% of tag names). The C convention of macro names commonly being in upper case is not specific to C. 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/
