
How-much-space-do-those-hyphens-take? - imgabe
http://arcanesentiment.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-much-space-do-those-hyphens-take.html
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jrockway
I guess the guy has a point, but ... I still disagree. There are only two ways
to name multiword identifiers, this-is-a-multiword-identifier or
this_is_a_multiword_identifier. Both take the same amount of space, and the
lisp-version is easier. No serious programmer would write
thisIsAMultiwordIdentifier, so it doesn't matter that it's shorter. It saves a
few bytes, but it will ensure that your program is completely unreadable.

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docmach
I disagree with your assumption that no serious programmer would use camel
case. Apple's APIs use it and I don't think I've ever seen any program that
uses them without using camel case. I find it very easy to read and prefer it
to hyphens and underscores.

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whordeley
Hey guys, lets all dance on the head of a pen together--ruminating on the
blatantly obvious!

Anyway all those extra bytes are mostly inconsequential unless you're sending
that code over the wire on a regular basis (as with client-side javascript).

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ajross
Amen. Any discussion of code style (symbol naming, whitespace conventions,
braces, whatever) that is based on an argument about how long it takes to
_type_ the code is just wrong. A good typist can write thousands of lines of
code an hour at least. That is so far below the development speed of even the
best hacker as to be pure noise.

There's a mild case for different code styles from a readability perspective,
I guess. But arguing for (e.g.) case insensitive symbol names because the it
takes too long to reach the shift key is just insane. But regardless: code
readability is 90% a function of organization, not style. I will always prefer
to work on well-organized code in mixed styles (or languages) than spaghetti
code that adheres strictly to an elaborate style convention.

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Hexstream
This (how much space hyphens take) is a total non-issue. What a waste of time.

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extension
I mapped the windows keys on my keyboard to the underscore character, and
disabled the normal one to force myself to get in the habit of using it. It
takes a bit of getting used to but now I_can_type_these_all_day without wrist
strain.

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pchristensen
Not much - 7.7% in standard functions (mostly in uncommon functions), 3-5% in
a selection of user code.

