OrginsOfCompoundNames

[David P. Schaumann]

In article <3230 at draken.nada.kth.se>, ianf at nada.kth.se (Ian Feldman) writes:
| 
|   Does anyone know the origins (and/or the etymology) of the compound
|   variable (and other item) naming convention ie, `variableName'
|  `otherItem' etc., in which the two or more parts of someThing are
|   delimited by its consecutive parts' beginning letters uppercase
|   state, with no spaces in between.  I assume it to have come about
|   because of some specific compiler's requirement of strictly alpha
|   letters in its variable names.  I believe also to have seen it in
|   use around 1985, though I don't quite recall in what circumstances. 
|   It would be interesting to find out who was the original
|   `motherFather' of such a construct. 
|   
|   Please enlighten. 
| 
I don't know if this is the original source, but this is the style in Small
Talk.  Variables beginning with a lowercase letter are considered locals and
variables beginning with an uppercase letter are global.  Supposedly, a
full implementation would enforce this, but the one I have (on an Amiga)
does not.  I haven't used it much, so I don't know if it allows non-alphabetic
characters in variable names, or if Small Talk itself forbids such constructs.


| --Ian Feldman /  ianf at nada.kth.se  ||  uunet!nada.kth.se!ianf / "There, Watson!
|              /  obviously he is not the ImageWriter hacker we suspected him of"


Dave Schaumann
dave at cs.arizona.edu----- News saved at 29 Mar 90 02:17:56 GMT
In article <3230 at draken.nada.kth.se>, ianf at nada.kth.se (Ian Feldman) writes:
| 
|   Does anyone know the origins (and/or the etymology) of the compound
|   variable (and other item) naming convention ie, `variableName'
|  `otherItem' etc., in which the two or more parts of someThing are
|   delimited by its consecutive parts' beginning letters uppercase
|   state, with no spaces in between.  I assume it to have come about
|   because of some specific compiler's requirement of strictly alpha
|   letters in its variable names.  I believe also to have seen it in
|   use around 1985, though I don't quite recall in what circumstances. 
|   It would be interesting to find out who was the original
|   `motherFather' of such a construct. 
|   
|   Please enlighten. 
| 
I don't know if this is the original source, but this is the style in Small
Talk.  Variables beginning with a lowercase letter are considered locals and
variables beginning with an uppercase letter are global.  Supposedly, a
full implementation would enforce this, but the one I have (on an Amiga)
does not.  I haven't used it much, so I don't know if it allows non-alphabetic
characters in variable names, or if Small Talk itself forbids such constructs.


| --Ian Feldman /  ianf at nada.kth.se  ||  uunet!nada.kth.se!ianf / "There, Watson!
|              /  obviously he is not the ImageWriter hacker we suspected him of"


Dave Schaumann
dave at cs.arizona.edu