4 ms·

I just use a UUID for every variable name to make sure the codebase never has any ambiguity. No one is going to confuse e7693160-b5cf-4761-9202-de019cfd0fc9 wi

I just use a UUID for every variable name to make sure the codebase never has any ambiguity. No one is going to confuse e7693160-b5cf-4761-9202-de019cfd0fc9 with c3d8b9ac-d0da-4bbc-912b-025ce4e47f62

whatshisface 6y ago
A good name has maximal information density. If the string is compressible, you're wasting your reader's time. That's why I use all utf-8 glyphs to render my uniformly random and highly informative (from an information theory standpoint) variable names.
- uyt 6y ago
  You joke but symbolic programming languages like APL are kinda neat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_syntax_and_symbols https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_syntax_and_symbols
- calvinmorrison 6y ago
  I do see this more often in UTF8 native platforms. arr1 and arr2 might use subscripts for 1 and 2 with no side effect on plan9. Why use "delta" when writing a delta symbol is so easy?
  - dTal 6y ago
    Julia not only supports Unicode, but embraces it culturally. You indeed very often see Δ in Julia code.
- 174SIGSEGV 6y ago
  A good name is also memorable, consistent, easily decipherable, and works around namespace conflicts. Might be a best 2.7 out of 4 situation, I guess. Why 2.7/4 and not 3/4? Because the remainder was lost in translation to the ASCII gods.
keanebean86 6y ago
This implies your code has fewer than 2¹²² variables. A real coder should have more than that in each method. Sounds like you're basically a glorified VB "dev."
- ineedasername 6y ago
  you're basically a glorified VB "dev." How did you know?! Actually it's probably not far from the truth... most of the code I write is more like scripts in R & Python and small utilities than fully-fledged applications. And lots of SQL. I glue a bunch of stuff together, and after that is where my real job begins. I used to have a bit more fun writing C code to work around the limitations of an ancient ERP: that system's foundations literally extended back to before the moon landing and long before I was born.
1vuio0pswjnm7 6y ago
You could rename the functions to match their symbols, after compiling. The output of nm for the function originally named "write" from musl libc might look like 000000000006ee20 T 000000000006ee20
stevebmark 6y ago
There's some usefulness in this idea, which is the core idea behind Unison https://www.unisonweb.org/docs/tour https://www.unisonweb.org/docs/tour
jnwatson 6y ago
I once ported a 3rd party telecommunication middleware stack to a new OS. Every single function was 12 characters long, 4 fields of 3 characters each. Each field had meaning, but I wasn't given the decoder ring. That was not fun.
ornxka 6y ago
Actually, you'd be really surprised about that: https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1229641258370355200 https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1229641258370355200
mro_name 6y ago
lol

I just use a UUID for every variable name to make sure the codebase never has any ambiguity. No one is going to confuse e7693160-b5cf-4761-9202-de019cfd0fc9 with c3d8b9ac-d0da-4bbc-912b-025ce4e47f62

whatshisface 6y ago

A good name has maximal information density. If the string is compressible, you're wasting your reader's time. That's why I use all utf-8 glyphs to render my uniformly random and highly informative (from an information theory standpoint) variable names.

uyt 6y ago
You joke but symbolic programming languages like APL are kinda neat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_syntax_and_symbols https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APL_syntax_and_symbols
calvinmorrison 6y ago
I do see this more often in UTF8 native platforms. arr1 and arr2 might use subscripts for 1 and 2 with no side effect on plan9. Why use "delta" when writing a delta symbol is so easy?
- dTal 6y ago
  Julia not only supports Unicode, but embraces it culturally. You indeed very often see Δ in Julia code.
174SIGSEGV 6y ago
A good name is also memorable, consistent, easily decipherable, and works around namespace conflicts. Might be a best 2.7 out of 4 situation, I guess. Why 2.7/4 and not 3/4? Because the remainder was lost in translation to the ASCII gods.

keanebean86 6y ago

This implies your code has fewer than 2¹²² variables. A real coder should have more than that in each method. Sounds like you're basically a glorified VB "dev."

ineedasername 6y ago
you're basically a glorified VB "dev." How did you know?! Actually it's probably not far from the truth... most of the code I write is more like scripts in R & Python and small utilities than fully-fledged applications. And lots of SQL. I glue a bunch of stuff together, and after that is where my real job begins. I used to have a bit more fun writing C code to work around the limitations of an ancient ERP: that system's foundations literally extended back to before the moon landing and long before I was born.

1vuio0pswjnm7 6y ago

You could rename the functions to match their symbols, after compiling. The output of nm for the function originally named "write" from musl libc might look like 000000000006ee20 T 000000000006ee20

stevebmark 6y ago

There's some usefulness in this idea, which is the core idea behind Unison https://www.unisonweb.org/docs/tour https://www.unisonweb.org/docs/tour

jnwatson 6y ago

I once ported a 3rd party telecommunication middleware stack to a new OS. Every single function was 12 characters long, 4 fields of 3 characters each. Each field had meaning, but I wasn't given the decoder ring. That was not fun.

ornxka 6y ago

Actually, you'd be really surprised about that: https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1229641258370355200 https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1229641258370355200

mro_name 6y ago

lol