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From: Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Line read from csv file with fgets has two characters before the terminating one
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2016 12:58:15 -0800
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BartC <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
> On 15/12/2016 19:51, Keith Thompson wrote:
>> BartC <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>>> On 15/12/2016 17:49, Keith Thompson wrote:
>>>> BartC <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>>>>> int main (int nparams, char** params) {
>>>> I'll restrict myself to just one question.
>>>>
>>>> Why did you decide to call the parameters to main "nparams" and
>>>> "params", rather than the universally conventional "argc" and "argv"?
>>>
>>> I keep getting them mixed up, when I can remember them.
>>
>> argc is "argument count".  argv is "argument vector".
>
> I wouldn't have guessed that last one.

And now you don't have to guess.

> But, is it that big a deal? Sometimes I have to delve into C code 
> amounting to tens or hundreds of thousands of lines of code. The exact 
> parameter names used by just one of thousands of functions - and one 
> discussed here ad nauseam - is the least of the problems!

It's not a very big deal, just the first thing I happened to notice.
It's a small problem, but still a problem.  It obfuscates the code for
not good reason.

> I'm sure it wouldn't faze any of the experts.

It fazed me.  I know exactly what it means, of course, but if I
encountered this in a real-world program I'd waste some small amount of
time wondering why unconventional names were used, and whether there
might be some actual significance.

[...]

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Working, but not speaking, for JetHead Development, Inc.
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"