[LLVMdev] RFC: variable names

[Chandler Carruth]

On Mon, Oct 13, 2014 at 5:35 PM, Sean Silva <chisophugis at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 13, 2014 at 3:04 PM, Nick Kledzik <kledzik at apple.com> wrote:
>
>> I’d like to discuss revising the LLVM coding conventions to change the
>> naming of variables to start with a lowercase letter.  This should not be a
>> discussion on the pain of such a transition, or how to get from here to
>> there, but rather, if there is a better place to be.
>>
>
> How about we set up a little form (easy with google docs) where people can
> fill in their gripes. The rules for the form are that every time the
> current convention causes you an issue or annoyance in practice, you fill
> in information about your current situation. I don't think we can really
> evaluate "a better place to be" without empirical information.
>

While such data would perhaps be interesting, I don't think your suggestion
is practical. It requires to do extra work when they are already frustrated
by doing extra work (due to the bad coding convention). And it will be a
terribly biased sample set. And there is no way to objectively rank the
pain points.


> Armchair speculation about what might or might not be "better" is not
> going to get us anywhere.
>

In the absence of data, it is possible for people to make a judgement based
on logical principles, their experience, and intuition. It doesn't seem
unreasonable to pursue such a course here. It may not result in a perfect
outcome, but it at least has the potential to result in an improvement over
the status quo.
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