rick@uwmacc.UUCP (the absurdist) (11/18/85)
[ eat old software, bug!!! ]
Recently, I decided to subscribe to a new mailing list. I looked
up the appropriate path with uupath, and began typing out the whole
"mail fred!george!harold.....!info-glonkenheimer-request" business.
By the time I was at the end of the mail address, I'd been interrupted,
and finished out my address with "info-glonkenheimer", rather than
"info-glonkenheimer-request".
Needless to say, the message went out, eluded my efforts to kill it,
(why is uucp always running right when you don't want it to be?)
and was remailed to everyone on the ARPA list.
I realize that changing ARPA's style of naming isn't going to happen ...
but this illustrates a basic principle of software engineering: words
with the same prefixes are easily confused, whether they are variables
in your program, or responses the user has to type.
Yours for better naming conventions,
--
Rick Keir -- right next to the Oyster Tank -- UWisc - Madison
{allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!rick