Post 321637 by thatcosmonaut@knzk.me
 (DIR) More posts by thatcosmonaut@knzk.me
 (DIR) Post #321637 by thatcosmonaut@knzk.me
       2018-10-02T00:17:45Z
       
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       never understand when programmers confusingly abbreviate things or leave out whitespace. like are we experiencing a shortage of keystrokes or something
       
 (DIR) Post #322452 by ejk@mathstodon.xyz
       2018-10-02T01:41:27Z
       
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       @thatcosmonaut FPGA programmers are the WORST
       
 (DIR) Post #322637 by awr@cybre.space
       2018-10-02T01:59:56Z
       
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       @thatcosmonaut stems a lot from history. before screen-based terminals we had teleprinters, which meant that lengthy lines/identifiers cost both time (to print) and money (paper + ink). Screen-based terminals were limited to 80x25 characters. ancient C compilers used to have a character limit of like 6 or 7 characters on identifiers.
       
 (DIR) Post #322681 by thatcosmonaut@knzk.me
       2018-10-02T02:02:42Z
       
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       @awr idk, i see novice programmers doing this stuff all the time and they wouldnt know anything about historical C practices
       
 (DIR) Post #322763 by awr@cybre.space
       2018-10-02T02:11:36Z
       
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       @thatcosmonaut I'm fine with concision in certain contexts, e.g. "len" is fine to me as a replacement for "length," "vec" for "vector," "dot" for "dot product," etc. but there is a point to where it becomes destructive to readability.
       
 (DIR) Post #323090 by p@freespeechextremist.com
       2018-10-02T02:50:00.528977Z
       
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       @thatcosmonaut An apologia: Short names are better. It's easier to see what's going on. The shortest name you can use without introducing ambiguity is ideal, and using single-letters for short-scoped incidental variables avoids accentuating noise. Long names push you to scan instead of reading and they emphasize inconsequential details.I don't omit whitespace often, but if I do, it's usually to visually group things. If an expression reads better divided into three parts, for example.