Just Wondering

[Rahul Dhesi]

In article <12565 at lanl.gov> jlg at lanl.gov (Jim Giles) writes:
>Math texts also tend to use one character identifiers for all objects
>under consideration.  I don't suppose you also recommend limiting
>identifiers to one character?!?

There *is* a reason for mathematicians to use single-character
identifiers.  This is because a large fraction of mathematical
expressions contain some type of product, and it's very convenient to
be able to say "abc" and mean "a * b * c".

Once you begin with the convention that abc is a product of three
terms, it's confusing to do otherwise in the same book or journal.

Most computer programs do not necessarily involve products, so it pays
to give up the convenience of mathematical notation to gain clarity by
using longer identifiers.  But single-character identifiers *are*
useful.  Most loop counters are one-char identifiers.  When you are
evaluating a conventional mathematical expression it often pays
stick to that format.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi at bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
UUCP:    ...!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi