ianf@nada.kth.se (Ian Feldman) (03/29/90)
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.
--Ian Feldman / ianf@nada.kth.se || uunet!nada.kth.se!ianf / "There, Watson!
/ obviously he is not the ImageWriter hacker we suspected him of"foster@jumbly.dec.com (Steven Fruitbat Foster) (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 always thought it was done with caps at the start too? Like TwoThings etc. We ex-basic programmers often adopt such things (first admission - I've just came out as a basic programmer on the net). AFTER HAVING TO SHOUT ALL THE TIME IT'S REFRESHING to completely do without capitals (as in C, pascal). quite often never ever using them at all. Eventually one Adopts a Happy Medium, with these things being _de rigeur_ in languages such as Modula-2, where it's a necessary convention. I think its a nice way to separate words, even though it leads to identifiers such as ThisIsAVeryDifficultIdentifierForYourIndenterToCopeWith. I suppose the convention came about when restrictions of 6 char identifiers were finally removed. Several languages now have these as clarifiers - the object thisthing, ThisThing and THISTHING can have their types known by how they are writ. Fruitbat. +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Steve Fruitbat Foster | foster@jumbly.dec.com [+@uk.ac.nsfnet-relay] | | Digital Equipment Corp. +--------------------------------------------------| | Reading, UK. | These opinions are not necessarily those of DEC, | | **STUFF THE POLL TAX** | my assorted cuddly toys or anybody whatsoever. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Homosexuality: Eight out of ten owners (who expressed a preference) said their bats *preferred* it.
shore@mtxinu.COM (Melinda Shore) (03/30/90)
[] I first encountered it in the wacky world of MacIntosh programming around 1984 (shortly after they first came out). I attended MacHigh School (how embarrassing), where we were told that at Apple constants were capitalized one way, globals another, and locals were, I think, all lowercase. I think perhaps globals had lowercase first letters but a cap in the middle (lowerCase, for example), and constants had uppercase first letters and perhaps a cap in the middle (UpperCase). -- Melinda Shore shore@mtxinu.com mt Xinu ..!uunet!mtxinu.com!shore