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The world of acronyms

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  • A Ashish Kaila

    Recently a developer in the team decided to prefix all classes in a namespace with a four alphabet acronym (let's call it DSRS, it's pretty close to what it is). I cannot elaborate how many brain cells have gone dead in me in comprehending the code and telling him to remove that prefix or use something more useful. His answer: people will get used to it and so will new devs... Speechless....

    Ashish Kaila

    A Offline
    A Offline
    AspDotNetDev
    wrote on last edited by
    #2

    A very similar thing was done to the main database at my last job. Only took me 1-2 years to "get used to" it. :doh: Though, to be honest, it was actually somewhat useful in the way they did the naming. When they casually used the prefixes in conversation and expected you to know what it meant was when it got confusing.

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    • A Ashish Kaila

      Recently a developer in the team decided to prefix all classes in a namespace with a four alphabet acronym (let's call it DSRS, it's pretty close to what it is). I cannot elaborate how many brain cells have gone dead in me in comprehending the code and telling him to remove that prefix or use something more useful. His answer: people will get used to it and so will new devs... Speechless....

      Ashish Kaila

      J Offline
      J Offline
      Jeroen De Dauw
      wrote on last edited by
      #3

      I recommend going a search and replace operation to replace this acronym by another: RTFM

      Jeroen De Dauw
      Blog ; Wiki

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      • A Ashish Kaila

        Recently a developer in the team decided to prefix all classes in a namespace with a four alphabet acronym (let's call it DSRS, it's pretty close to what it is). I cannot elaborate how many brain cells have gone dead in me in comprehending the code and telling him to remove that prefix or use something more useful. His answer: people will get used to it and so will new devs... Speechless....

        Ashish Kaila

        I Offline
        I Offline
        imagiro
        wrote on last edited by
        #4

        Reminds me another programmer I know. He prefixed everything with his initials :)

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        • I imagiro

          Reminds me another programmer I know. He prefixed everything with his initials :)

          B Offline
          B Offline
          BillW33
          wrote on last edited by
          #5

          Now that is one of the most useless prefixes that I have heard of! :omg:

          Just because the code works, it doesn't mean that it is good code.

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          • A Ashish Kaila

            Recently a developer in the team decided to prefix all classes in a namespace with a four alphabet acronym (let's call it DSRS, it's pretty close to what it is). I cannot elaborate how many brain cells have gone dead in me in comprehending the code and telling him to remove that prefix or use something more useful. His answer: people will get used to it and so will new devs... Speechless....

            Ashish Kaila

            R Offline
            R Offline
            RobCroll
            wrote on last edited by
            #6

            If it doesn't breach your development teams coding standards, then it's valid. You do have coding standards, yeah? Microsoft's standards recommend TLA's should be title case ie: Dsrs not DSRS unless the TLA is only 2 letters in which case it should be all caps ie: System.IO. The upside is that developers have there own approach to solving problems and tell-tale signatures like this will help you debug their code. Recognising individual programming styles is a good thing. BTW it is crap but this sort of thing isn't uncommon. A better solution would be to extend the namespace to include Dsrs

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            • R RobCroll

              If it doesn't breach your development teams coding standards, then it's valid. You do have coding standards, yeah? Microsoft's standards recommend TLA's should be title case ie: Dsrs not DSRS unless the TLA is only 2 letters in which case it should be all caps ie: System.IO. The upside is that developers have there own approach to solving problems and tell-tale signatures like this will help you debug their code. Recognising individual programming styles is a good thing. BTW it is crap but this sort of thing isn't uncommon. A better solution would be to extend the namespace to include Dsrs

              L Offline
              L Offline
              Lutoslaw
              wrote on last edited by
              #7

              Robert Croll wrote:

              Microsoft's standards recommend TLA's should be title case ie: Dsrs not DSRS unless the TLA is only 2 letters in which case it should be all caps ie: System.IO.

              Robert Croll wrote:

              BTW it is crap but this sort of thing isn't uncommon. A better solution would be to extend the namespace to include Dsrs

              Gotcha! ;P

              Greetings - Jacek

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              • A Ashish Kaila

                Recently a developer in the team decided to prefix all classes in a namespace with a four alphabet acronym (let's call it DSRS, it's pretty close to what it is). I cannot elaborate how many brain cells have gone dead in me in comprehending the code and telling him to remove that prefix or use something more useful. His answer: people will get used to it and so will new devs... Speechless....

                Ashish Kaila

                M Offline
                M Offline
                marc_k
                wrote on last edited by
                #8

                You should ask him: Are you sure people will get used to it? Hope you get a clearer answer. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4xhs4564(v=VS.71).aspx[^] :laugh: :laugh:

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                • B BillW33

                  Now that is one of the most useless prefixes that I have heard of! :omg:

                  Just because the code works, it doesn't mean that it is good code.

                  I Offline
                  I Offline
                  imagiro
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #9

                  So you know at least which classes have to be exchanged :)

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                  • R RobCroll

                    If it doesn't breach your development teams coding standards, then it's valid. You do have coding standards, yeah? Microsoft's standards recommend TLA's should be title case ie: Dsrs not DSRS unless the TLA is only 2 letters in which case it should be all caps ie: System.IO. The upside is that developers have there own approach to solving problems and tell-tale signatures like this will help you debug their code. Recognising individual programming styles is a good thing. BTW it is crap but this sort of thing isn't uncommon. A better solution would be to extend the namespace to include Dsrs

                    P Offline
                    P Offline
                    PIEBALDconsult
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #10

                    Robert Croll wrote:

                    Microsoft's standards

                    Robert Croll wrote:

                    is crap

                    'Nuff said. :-D I kid (mostly), but I never do anything "just because Microsoft says so".

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                    • I imagiro

                      Reminds me another programmer I know. He prefixed everything with his initials :)

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                      peterchen
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #11

                      I had the reserve. Wenn seeing my initials (PH) in an id i wen "What the... ? Why would I put my initials here? Was I drunk on imagined importance that day? I am soooo ashamed of myself!" Only the next day I figured, it means "Post History". As the comment above it said. (And no, "Post History" is not "the Present" in this context).

                      Agh! Reality! My Archnemesis![^]
                      | FoldWithUs! | sighist | WhoIncludes - Analyzing C++ include file hierarchy

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                      • M marc_k

                        You should ask him: Are you sure people will get used to it? Hope you get a clearer answer. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4xhs4564(v=VS.71).aspx[^] :laugh: :laugh:

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                        M Offline
                        mathomp3
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #12

                        Worse I had to deal with was single letters that weren't related. for example Table names A_EmployeeInformation, B_EmployeePay, A_EmployeeSpouseInfo, C_PayHistory I asked the database guy um why the letters, he said it grouped them by function and I should know that being a DBA for 5 years, and then questioned if I knew anything about Database design. It was at that moment I had fears over the database, and I was right, cause then we started seeing AA, and BB for tables that were reference tables, and my favorites were the ABC tables reference table used by A, B, C tables. Was so glad when I was removed from that program for a bigger profile one.

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                        • A Ashish Kaila

                          Recently a developer in the team decided to prefix all classes in a namespace with a four alphabet acronym (let's call it DSRS, it's pretty close to what it is). I cannot elaborate how many brain cells have gone dead in me in comprehending the code and telling him to remove that prefix or use something more useful. His answer: people will get used to it and so will new devs... Speechless....

                          Ashish Kaila

                          _ Offline
                          _ Offline
                          _Erik_
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #13

                          Well, then use you another prefix for your classes: "WTFisDSRS". If he asks you to remove that prefix, just answer: Yes, I will.. when you remove yours.

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                          • A Ashish Kaila

                            Recently a developer in the team decided to prefix all classes in a namespace with a four alphabet acronym (let's call it DSRS, it's pretty close to what it is). I cannot elaborate how many brain cells have gone dead in me in comprehending the code and telling him to remove that prefix or use something more useful. His answer: people will get used to it and so will new devs... Speechless....

                            Ashish Kaila

                            J Offline
                            J Offline
                            Jalapeno Bob
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #14

                            Being an old-timer, I have made a practice of prefixing a variable name with its type. For example, an integer for tracking the number of actions taken might be named intActions and a money variable (logical subclass of decimal) might be mnyCashIn. Even now, with much smarter compilers, I still do it. This makes my code consistent, whether old or new, compiled or script. It also simplifies porting between weakly typed languages and strongly typed languages.

                            Steve EcholsS A 2 Replies Last reply
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                            • I imagiro

                              Reminds me another programmer I know. He prefixed everything with his initials :)

                              A Offline
                              A Offline
                              AspDotNetDev
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #15

                              There was a guy at my last job who did that. And every one of my coworkers insisted I mark each change I made to a stored procedure with a comment containing my name so they know who made the change (so they could go to that programmer and ask him/her about it). They thought that was a better idea than version control. Even though the code was littered with names of old programmers who no longer worked there.

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                              • J Jalapeno Bob

                                Being an old-timer, I have made a practice of prefixing a variable name with its type. For example, an integer for tracking the number of actions taken might be named intActions and a money variable (logical subclass of decimal) might be mnyCashIn. Even now, with much smarter compilers, I still do it. This makes my code consistent, whether old or new, compiled or script. It also simplifies porting between weakly typed languages and strongly typed languages.

                                Steve EcholsS Offline
                                Steve EcholsS Offline
                                Steve Echols
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #16

                                It's called Hungarian Notation[^].


                                - S 50 cups of coffee and you know it's on! Code, follow, or get out of the way.

                                • S
                                  50 cups of coffee and you know it's on!
                                  Code, follow, or get out of the way.
                                E 1 Reply Last reply
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                                • J Jalapeno Bob

                                  Being an old-timer, I have made a practice of prefixing a variable name with its type. For example, an integer for tracking the number of actions taken might be named intActions and a money variable (logical subclass of decimal) might be mnyCashIn. Even now, with much smarter compilers, I still do it. This makes my code consistent, whether old or new, compiled or script. It also simplifies porting between weakly typed languages and strongly typed languages.

                                  A Offline
                                  A Offline
                                  Ashish Kaila
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #17

                                  Hey Bob, I think it depends on the platform being used. If I am using a not so type safe platform where at coding time type cannot be inferred, then a prefix for denoting object type is perfectly valid. I am not so sure about type safe languages such as C#. Also the problem I described was prefixing of classes which again should be avoided in my opinion regardless of platform. Anyhow happy friday and happy coding ! Ashish

                                  Ashish Kaila

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                                  • I imagiro

                                    So you know at least which classes have to be exchanged :)

                                    A Offline
                                    A Offline
                                    Ashish Kaila
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #18

                                    Haha... Never thought like that :). But true ! I can write a script and have it do it for me ! In the end, the prefix will only apply to my script: ABCDPrefixRemover.bat :)

                                    Ashish Kaila

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                                    • A Ashish Kaila

                                      Recently a developer in the team decided to prefix all classes in a namespace with a four alphabet acronym (let's call it DSRS, it's pretty close to what it is). I cannot elaborate how many brain cells have gone dead in me in comprehending the code and telling him to remove that prefix or use something more useful. His answer: people will get used to it and so will new devs... Speechless....

                                      Ashish Kaila

                                      A Offline
                                      A Offline
                                      Adrian Cole
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #19

                                      WTF?

                                      while (e) { Coyote(); }

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                                      • A Ashish Kaila

                                        Recently a developer in the team decided to prefix all classes in a namespace with a four alphabet acronym (let's call it DSRS, it's pretty close to what it is). I cannot elaborate how many brain cells have gone dead in me in comprehending the code and telling him to remove that prefix or use something more useful. His answer: people will get used to it and so will new devs... Speechless....

                                        Ashish Kaila

                                        E Offline
                                        E Offline
                                        Earl Truss
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #20

                                        "I hate TLAs." You may quote me.

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                                        • Steve EcholsS Steve Echols

                                          It's called Hungarian Notation[^].


                                          - S 50 cups of coffee and you know it's on! Code, follow, or get out of the way.

                                          E Offline
                                          E Offline
                                          Earl Truss
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #21

                                          .. and it was highly recommended for use in VB6.

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