variable names - who cares!?
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a friend of mine - many years ago - was asked to port a physics simulation program from one platform to another. The software performed beautifully, was efficient, and had won awards for educational excellence etc. the source code was several thousand lines of assembly, which was large but not too large for that platform and era. The program had two comments in it, one word each. They were not helpful. The variable naming convention was even more interesting. It seems the original author [a physicist/mathematician, in all fairness] treated variable names like a Pez dispenser. The first variable in the program was named "A", the second was named "B", and so on. When he got to Z he started over with A1, then B1, etc. The program had a lot of variables, I think the last variable was named BB21. Porting the application was not too difficult, as the two platforms had very similar instruction sets. Debugging it, on the other hand, was an exercise in insanity!
Best regards, Steven A. Lowe CEO, Innovator LLC www.nov8r.com
:confused: ... :wtf: ... :doh: ... :(( ... :mad:
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a friend of mine - many years ago - was asked to port a physics simulation program from one platform to another. The software performed beautifully, was efficient, and had won awards for educational excellence etc. the source code was several thousand lines of assembly, which was large but not too large for that platform and era. The program had two comments in it, one word each. They were not helpful. The variable naming convention was even more interesting. It seems the original author [a physicist/mathematician, in all fairness] treated variable names like a Pez dispenser. The first variable in the program was named "A", the second was named "B", and so on. When he got to Z he started over with A1, then B1, etc. The program had a lot of variables, I think the last variable was named BB21. Porting the application was not too difficult, as the two platforms had very similar instruction sets. Debugging it, on the other hand, was an exercise in insanity!
Best regards, Steven A. Lowe CEO, Innovator LLC www.nov8r.com
Steven A. Lowe wrote:
The first variable in the program was named "A", the second was named "B", and so on. When he got to Z he started over with A1, then B1, etc.
Steven A. Lowe wrote:
I think the last variable was named BB21.
Impossible: no physicist/mathematician will conclude such a series with
BB21. :-DIf the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
[My articles] -
a friend of mine - many years ago - was asked to port a physics simulation program from one platform to another. The software performed beautifully, was efficient, and had won awards for educational excellence etc. the source code was several thousand lines of assembly, which was large but not too large for that platform and era. The program had two comments in it, one word each. They were not helpful. The variable naming convention was even more interesting. It seems the original author [a physicist/mathematician, in all fairness] treated variable names like a Pez dispenser. The first variable in the program was named "A", the second was named "B", and so on. When he got to Z he started over with A1, then B1, etc. The program had a lot of variables, I think the last variable was named BB21. Porting the application was not too difficult, as the two platforms had very similar instruction sets. Debugging it, on the other hand, was an exercise in insanity!
Best regards, Steven A. Lowe CEO, Innovator LLC www.nov8r.com
I spent too much time dealing with numerical modelling suites written in FORTRAN written exactly the same way. Thousands and thousands of lines, and all the variables "x", "xx", "xxx" etc. Comments? We're physicists, not literary majors. We don't need no stinkin' comments. The code is obvious anyway... :doh: :sigh:
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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I spent too much time dealing with numerical modelling suites written in FORTRAN written exactly the same way. Thousands and thousands of lines, and all the variables "x", "xx", "xxx" etc. Comments? We're physicists, not literary majors. We don't need no stinkin' comments. The code is obvious anyway... :doh: :sigh:
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
Comments? We're physicists, not literary majors. We don't need no stinkin' comments. The code is obvious anyway...
... 30 minutes of pensive pacing. As I said, it's obvious. :laugh:
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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I spent too much time dealing with numerical modelling suites written in FORTRAN written exactly the same way. Thousands and thousands of lines, and all the variables "x", "xx", "xxx" etc. Comments? We're physicists, not literary majors. We don't need no stinkin' comments. The code is obvious anyway... :doh: :sigh:
cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
Chris Maunder wrote:
numerical modelling suites written in FORTRAN written exactly the same way. Thousands and thousands of lines, and all the variables "x", "xx", "xxx" etc.
Ah yes, I do recall my grandfather's Fortran IV book being loaded with this kind of stuff :)
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham
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a friend of mine - many years ago - was asked to port a physics simulation program from one platform to another. The software performed beautifully, was efficient, and had won awards for educational excellence etc. the source code was several thousand lines of assembly, which was large but not too large for that platform and era. The program had two comments in it, one word each. They were not helpful. The variable naming convention was even more interesting. It seems the original author [a physicist/mathematician, in all fairness] treated variable names like a Pez dispenser. The first variable in the program was named "A", the second was named "B", and so on. When he got to Z he started over with A1, then B1, etc. The program had a lot of variables, I think the last variable was named BB21. Porting the application was not too difficult, as the two platforms had very similar instruction sets. Debugging it, on the other hand, was an exercise in insanity!
Best regards, Steven A. Lowe CEO, Innovator LLC www.nov8r.com
When dealing with punch cards, short variable names are a blessing.
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When dealing with punch cards, short variable names are a blessing.
:laugh: so is a lighter :laugh: (this program definitely did not originate on punch cards, it was on an Apple ][e!)
Best regards, Steven A. Lowe CEO, Innovator LLC www.nov8r.com
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:laugh: so is a lighter :laugh: (this program definitely did not originate on punch cards, it was on an Apple ][e!)
Best regards, Steven A. Lowe CEO, Innovator LLC www.nov8r.com
Steven A. Lowe wrote:
so is a lighter
:laugh: Punch cards are great for the fireplace on cold winter nights :) About your reference to the Apple ][e, I remember my old Commodore 64 and 128 were limited to only the first characters counting in the variable name.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham
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Steven A. Lowe wrote:
so is a lighter
:laugh: Punch cards are great for the fireplace on cold winter nights :) About your reference to the Apple ][e, I remember my old Commodore 64 and 128 were limited to only the first characters counting in the variable name.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham
hmmm...i don't remember that being a limit of the macro-assembler, but then again i don't remember a lot of things from way back then :laugh:
Best regards, Steven A. Lowe CEO, Innovator LLC www.nov8r.com
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hmmm...i don't remember that being a limit of the macro-assembler, but then again i don't remember a lot of things from way back then :laugh:
Best regards, Steven A. Lowe CEO, Innovator LLC www.nov8r.com
I don't recall what the limit was in the macro assembler, but in Commodore Basic it was only the first two characters counting.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham
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Steven A. Lowe wrote:
so is a lighter
:laugh: Punch cards are great for the fireplace on cold winter nights :) About your reference to the Apple ][e, I remember my old Commodore 64 and 128 were limited to only the first characters counting in the variable name.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham
I first learned programming in BASIC-Plus on a PDP-11. Unless you issued the EXTEND command, variable names were limited to one character and perhaps one digit. (Well there could also be a % or $ too.)
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I first learned programming in BASIC-Plus on a PDP-11. Unless you issued the EXTEND command, variable names were limited to one character and perhaps one digit. (Well there could also be a % or $ too.)
PIEBALDconsult wrote:
there could also be a % or $
I remember that. $ for strings, and % for integer if I recall correctly. Funny thing, I still have the old Commodore sitting in the eave/storage thingee, 10 feet away from this desk. Maybe I'll dig it out one of these days :)
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham
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a friend of mine - many years ago - was asked to port a physics simulation program from one platform to another. The software performed beautifully, was efficient, and had won awards for educational excellence etc. the source code was several thousand lines of assembly, which was large but not too large for that platform and era. The program had two comments in it, one word each. They were not helpful. The variable naming convention was even more interesting. It seems the original author [a physicist/mathematician, in all fairness] treated variable names like a Pez dispenser. The first variable in the program was named "A", the second was named "B", and so on. When he got to Z he started over with A1, then B1, etc. The program had a lot of variables, I think the last variable was named BB21. Porting the application was not too difficult, as the two platforms had very similar instruction sets. Debugging it, on the other hand, was an exercise in insanity!
Best regards, Steven A. Lowe CEO, Innovator LLC www.nov8r.com
sounds like the kind of thing you'd get from a machine-ported app. i worked at a place that had some C code which did quadratic optimization. but nobody could make any sense of the C, because it had been machine-translated from FORTRAN - all the variables were "a", "b", "c", etc., and the code was full of GOTOs and statics. we eventually bought a C# implementation.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote:
there could also be a % or $
I remember that. $ for strings, and % for integer if I recall correctly. Funny thing, I still have the old Commodore sitting in the eave/storage thingee, 10 feet away from this desk. Maybe I'll dig it out one of these days :)
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham
Paul Conrad wrote:
% for integer
Right, but we all said, "Why would we ever want to use an integer? Reals will do whatever we need."
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sounds like the kind of thing you'd get from a machine-ported app. i worked at a place that had some C code which did quadratic optimization. but nobody could make any sense of the C, because it had been machine-translated from FORTRAN - all the variables were "a", "b", "c", etc., and the code was full of GOTOs and statics. we eventually bought a C# implementation.
sadyly, it was hand-written - I know the professor that wrote it. All of his programs are written that way. :((
Best regards, Steven A. Lowe CEO, Innovator LLC www.nov8r.com
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When dealing with punch cards, short variable names are a blessing.
short variable names are always a blessing. :)
If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
[My articles] -
I don't recall what the limit was in the macro assembler, but in Commodore Basic it was only the first two characters counting.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham
Well, here we have one big difference between interpreters and assemblers / compilers. An interpreter, like the good old BASIC, must hold the source in RAM, as well as every variable in use. On my old machine, it had only 4k for the interpreter AND the program AND the variables, it was the same: Better live with short variables and without comments than getting an out of memory error before the program is complete. In assembly programs or with a compiler this is no problem. Comments and variable names only make the source file longer, but both don't make it into the executable.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote:
there could also be a % or $
I remember that. $ for strings, and % for integer if I recall correctly. Funny thing, I still have the old Commodore sitting in the eave/storage thingee, 10 feet away from this desk. Maybe I'll dig it out one of these days :)
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham
Do it. It's fun to see the old machines going again. But also a bit scary, how primitive things were back then and how much we have been spoiled by the comfort of modern machines. Let's see, which one am I going to use tonight? The old Elf II? Atari 400? Or shall I take the Atari 800 XL? Or perhaps the 1040 ST? ....
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
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a friend of mine - many years ago - was asked to port a physics simulation program from one platform to another. The software performed beautifully, was efficient, and had won awards for educational excellence etc. the source code was several thousand lines of assembly, which was large but not too large for that platform and era. The program had two comments in it, one word each. They were not helpful. The variable naming convention was even more interesting. It seems the original author [a physicist/mathematician, in all fairness] treated variable names like a Pez dispenser. The first variable in the program was named "A", the second was named "B", and so on. When he got to Z he started over with A1, then B1, etc. The program had a lot of variables, I think the last variable was named BB21. Porting the application was not too difficult, as the two platforms had very similar instruction sets. Debugging it, on the other hand, was an exercise in insanity!
Best regards, Steven A. Lowe CEO, Innovator LLC www.nov8r.com
A place where I used to work had a lot of code with variable names like a, aa, b, bb, etc. Their reason? The time they saved by not typing out a longer variable name would add up to a significant time savings over the course of a year. They also saw nothing wrong with method names like "DoIt". You think that these things would make the code to understand? Their answer to that objection was "A good programmer can figure out what the code does!". I don't work there anymore, for obvious reasons ;).
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Well, here we have one big difference between interpreters and assemblers / compilers. An interpreter, like the good old BASIC, must hold the source in RAM, as well as every variable in use. On my old machine, it had only 4k for the interpreter AND the program AND the variables, it was the same: Better live with short variables and without comments than getting an out of memory error before the program is complete. In assembly programs or with a compiler this is no problem. Comments and variable names only make the source file longer, but both don't make it into the executable.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
CDP1802 wrote:
we have one big difference between interpreters and assemblers / compilers.
Oh yes, that was my first lesson in the difference between compilers and interpreters. Writing a program in the old Commodore Basic, then write the equivalent - sometimes by hand - in assembly, and what a bit of difference that was :) I did get my first Intel based machine as a high school graduation present, in 1991, an Intel 80386-DX25mhz box. I had qbasic and Microsoft Quick Basic 4.5 both installed on the machine. Bit of a performance difference between those two, back then.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon "Not only do you continue to babble nonsense, you can't even correctly remember the nonsense you babbled just minutes ago." - Rob Graham