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Re: What about namespaces ?

From Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.c
Subject Re: What about namespaces ?
Date 2012-04-03 21:27 +0100
Organization Aioe.org NNTP Server
Message-ID <jlfmfu$4k5$1@speranza.aioe.org> (permalink)
References <jleflk$kv0$1@speranza.aioe.org> <i9ur49-ug4.ln1@wilbur.25thandClement.com>

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William Ahern wrote:

> I always thought the soluion to that was:
> 
> pnvlt_do_stuff()

This sort of naming policy has the nasty consequence of leading to 
unintelligible names, which in turn leads to unreadable code.  


> Also, package_name_version_library_task_do_stuff() is much longer than 31
> characters. Which begs the question; is 31 characters really too
> constraining, or just an annoyance when things break because we didn't put
> any subsantial effort into the task at hand.

Maybe the question which should be asked is simply: is that limit really 
justified nowadays?  Maybe it was practically mandatory in 1972, but things 
have progressed a bit since then.  Possibly the reason that led to that 
limit in 1972 is no longer present in 2011.


> I've always considered C's lack of features a kind of "engineer forcing".
> Similar to legislative forcing--a term used in American judicial and
> political philosophy which implies that, e.g., a court's nullification of
> a law is effectively submittal to the legislature to "do it right", as
> opposed to a passive constitutional exercise.
> 
> In other words, environmental constraints (or stresses, so to speak)
> aren't merely meaningless or abstract limits; but ways of saying that, if
> you work hard enough to stay within certain bounds, you're more likely to
> get it right than under an alternative system; and if we were to loosen
> such limits, there would likely be unintended and detrimental
> consequences.
>
> I'm not sure I want to live in a software ecosystem where people can run
> roughshod over short and sensible identifiers.

This would imply that using short identifier names somehow represents the 
right way of doing things, but I don't see how anyone can claim that a piece 
of code can improve if someone decides to employ a form of dictionary 
compression on the identifier names, or if a function is somehow made worse 
if an extra letter is added to its identifier.


Rui Maciel

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Thread

What about namespaces ? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-04-03 10:25 +0100
  Re: What about namespaces ? "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-04-03 11:20 +0100
    Re: What about namespaces ? Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-04-03 22:29 +1200
      Re: What about namespaces ? "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-04-03 12:38 +0100
    Re: What about namespaces ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-04-03 12:19 -0700
      Re: What about namespaces ? "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-04-03 20:57 +0100
  Re: What about namespaces ? gordonb.9sh3w@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) - 2012-04-03 06:23 -0500
    Re: What about namespaces ? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-04-03 19:54 +0100
      Re: What about namespaces ? Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2012-04-03 12:18 -0700
        Re: What about namespaces ? jgharston <jgh@arcade.demon.co.uk> - 2012-04-03 13:09 -0700
    Re: What about namespaces ? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-04-03 19:54 +0100
    Re: What about namespaces ? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-04-03 19:54 +0100
  Re: What about namespaces ? 88888 Dihedral <dihedral88888@googlemail.com> - 2012-04-03 06:49 -0700
  Re: What about namespaces ? Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-04-03 11:10 -0500
    Re: What about namespaces ? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-04-03 20:12 +0100
    Re: What about namespaces ? Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-04-04 07:20 +1200
  Re: What about namespaces ? Fritz Wuehler <fritz@spamexpire-201204.rodent.frell.theremailer.net> - 2012-04-03 20:58 +0200
    Re: What about namespaces ? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-04-03 21:05 +0100
      Re: What about namespaces ? "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-04-03 21:33 +0100
  Re: What about namespaces ? William Ahern <william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> - 2012-04-03 12:05 -0700
    Re: What about namespaces ? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-04-03 15:50 -0400
    Re: What about namespaces ? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-04-03 21:27 +0100
      Re: What about namespaces ? Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> - 2012-04-03 14:40 -0700
    Re: What about namespaces ? jgk@panix.com (Joe keane) - 2012-04-11 20:56 +0000
      Re: What about namespaces ? Ben Pfaff <blp@cs.stanford.edu> - 2012-04-11 14:46 -0700
        Re: What about namespaces ? jgk@panix.com (Joe keane) - 2012-04-11 23:03 +0000
        Re: What about namespaces ? jgk@panix.com (Joe keane) - 2012-04-13 00:40 +0000
          Re: What about namespaces ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-04-12 18:56 -0700
            Re: What about namespaces ? "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-04-13 13:20 +0100
              Re: What about namespaces ? Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-04-13 13:43 -0700
            Re: What about namespaces ? jgk@panix.com (Joe keane) - 2012-04-15 16:46 +0000
              Re: What about namespaces ? Martin Ambuhl <mambuhl@earthlink.net> - 2012-04-21 04:38 -0400
                Re: What about namespaces ? "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-04-21 16:44 +0100
      Re: What about namespaces ? "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-04-11 23:01 +0100
        Re: What about namespaces ? jgk@panix.com (Joe keane) - 2012-04-13 21:04 +0000
      Re: What about namespaces ? lawrence.jones@siemens.com - 2012-04-11 22:09 -0400
        Re: What about namespaces ? Nomen Nescio <nobody@dizum.com> - 2012-04-12 10:55 +0200
  Re: What about namespaces ? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-04-04 00:17 +0100
    Re: What about namespaces ? William Ahern <william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> - 2012-04-03 16:44 -0700
      Re: What about namespaces ? nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com - 2012-04-04 00:49 -0700
  Re: What about namespaces ? Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-04-04 14:54 +1200
    Re: What about namespaces ? Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-04-04 15:43 +1200
      Re: What about namespaces ? Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-04-04 16:06 +1200
  Re: What about namespaces ? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-04-04 04:37 +0100
    Re: What about namespaces ? Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2012-04-04 18:43 +0000
      Re: What about namespaces ? Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-04-05 01:43 +0100
  Re: What about namespaces ? "io_x" <a@b.c.invalid> - 2012-04-04 09:32 +0200
  Re: What about namespaces ? Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-04-05 11:22 -0700
    Re: What about namespaces ? Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-04-05 21:04 +0100
    Re: What about namespaces ? Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2012-04-06 01:10 +0000

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