dave@cs.arizona.edu (David P. Schaumann) (03/29/90)
In article <3230@draken.nada.kth.se>, ianf@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@nada.kth.se || uunet!nada.kth.se!ianf / "There, Watson! | / obviously he is not the ImageWriter hacker we suspected him of" Dave Schaumann dave@cs.arizona.edu----- News saved at 29 Mar 90 02:17:56 GMT In article <3230@draken.nada.kth.se>, ianf@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@nada.kth.se || uunet!nada.kth.se!ianf / "There, Watson! | / obviously he is not the ImageWriter hacker we suspected him of" Dave Schaumann dave@cs.arizona.edu