The Shape of Code

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.