code should be clear rather than clever But clarity depends on context. Personally, in context of the C language, I find code like while ((string = *env++

code should be clear rather than clever But clarity depends on context. Personally, in context of the C language, I find code like while ((string = *env++)) (which is how the offending loop could have been written as well) perfectly clear. I doubt someone coming from a, say, Java-background would agree. Similarly, he complains that the loop index was called string_index instead of the 'far superior' i. With C99, I'd agree. But in a C90 codebase, do you really want to have declarations like int i,j; instead of int char_index, string_index; at the top of a block?