5 ms·

I always thought it was because programmers were too lazy to write a couple of extra characters to make a nice descriptive variable name. At least that's why I

• kingnothing 19y ago
  Sure, we are... But the question is why did we arbitrarily start incrementing from 'i' instead of 'a'?
  • chengmi 19y ago
    int i; float f; char c;
    • downer 19y ago
      float f; unsigned u; char c; key_t k; That's how I swing, man.
• icky 19y ago
  > I always thought it was because programmers were too lazy to write a couple of extra characters to make a nice descriptive variable name. Nah. A variable name's descriptiveness (and length) should be proportional to the size of the scope in which it's used. A simple loop index should almost never be longer than i, j, k, etc.
• nailer 19y ago
  Here here. There's nothing quite like: for i in $(exceptionally long pipeline that doesn't work right now) Because someone didn't tell you what I was supposed to be. Or being a few lines down the bottom of a very long loop, and trying to remember what 'i' represents this time round.