CamelCase versus wide_names (Prothon)

[Jack Diederich]

On Thu, Apr 15, 2004 at 11:05:29AM -0700, Mark Hahn wrote:
> 
> "Roy Smith" <roy at panix.com> wrote...
> 
> > It's entirely unclear how any of the above should influence your
> > decisions on language design :-)
> 
> It may not technically be part of the language design, but aesthic issues
> like this need to be decided up front or they will be decided randomly.
> Users on the Prothon mailing list were asking me (I'm the BDFL there) to
> change from wide_names to camelCase and I wasn't letting them, because
> Python used wide_names and I have a rule about following Python unless there
> is a good reason to change.
> 
> Then I came here and asked and to my surprise I'm finding out that 100% of
> python users want camelCase.  This kind of blows away my argument against
> it.  So camelCase it will be.
> 
> Now I'll go through all the Python method and var names and convert them all
> to camelCase for Prothon.  It shouldn't be a problem for users since the
> conversion is mechanical.
<blood curdling scream>Noooooo!</bcs>

As others have pointed out down the thread, don't just go on the first
several replies.

I'm a wide_case_fanboy, having done mixedCase and wide_names over the last
fifteen years.  It all comes down to personal preference, of course.  IMO
mixedCase people tend to be younger, and younger people tend to be more
zealous on newsgroups.

I'm also a native English speaker, so this_looks_like_words while
thisLooksAwkward.  I can read/write both and do depending on who is paying
for the project, but I much prefer the underscores.  I can also type 100+
words per minute (much faster than I can think) so I'm limited by figuring
out what I want to do and not by hitting shift-minus.

Mixed case works fine on two word variables because twoWords are as easy
to read as two_words.  But it gets painful forLongerVariableNames.
I'm a big fan of descriptive names and since mixed case seems to discourage them
when N > 2 that is enough reason to dislike it.

My assertion that mixed case fanboys are young and therefore loud while
at the same time being too inexperienced to know the difference is harsh and
I'm sure a 65 year old programmer will post as a counter example.  They
are called stereotypes because they work /most/ of the time, if they worked
/all/ of the time they would just call them truths. *wink*

-jackdied