Variable naming based on lengths of existing variable names
Over the years I have spent a lot of time studying variable names and I sometimes encounter significant disbelief when explaining the more unusual developer variable name selection algorithms.
The following explanation from Rasmus Lerdorf, of PHP fame, provides a useful citable source for a variant on a common theme (i.e., name length).
“… Back when PHP had less than 100 functions and the function hashing mechanism was strlen(). In order to get a nice hash distribution of function names across the various function name lengths names were picked specifically to make them fit into a specific length bucket. This was circa late 1994 when PHP was a tool just for my own personal use and I wasn’t too worried about not being able to remember the few function names.”
Pointers to other admissions of youthful folly welcome.
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