Reserved names in ANSI C

[Jeffrey Kegler]

diamond at csl.sony.junet (Norman Diamond) writes:

=> jeffrey at algor2.uu.net (Jeffrey Kegler) writes:
=> => [ Discussion of mine of avoiding name conflicts, along with facetious ]
=> => [ suggestion variables be numbered in the first six characters for ]
=> => [ distinctness under ANSI C ]

=> Names should indeed be numbered:
=> WM_000_long_descriptive_name
=> WM_001_another_long_descriptive_name
=> WM_002_yaldn  /* i guess this one wasn't so long :-) */

I don't know about anyone else, but there is no way I would remember
variable names like that 10 seconds after I coined them.  Also, given
a conflict of prefixes (which was a premise of the discussion) use of
such names *guarantees* conflicts between the libraries, rather than
leaving them merely very likely.

Norman has a lot of good things (which I did not quote) to say, and
that a competent person like him would advocate a miserable naming
system like the above shows the desperation to which the six character
limit is going to drive us all.

The amount of effort that some projects are going to have to go
through to obey the 6 character limit will rewrite many a linker.
-- 

Jeffrey Kegler, President, Algorists,
jeffrey at algor2.UU.NET or uunet!algor2!jeffrey
1762 Wainwright DR, Reston VA 22090