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[lethosor]

In C++ you'd want to use const in almost all cases.  #define is a relic from before C supported true constant variables, and C++ was originally derived from C.

C probably supports the const keyword these days too, but I'm not sure.

To expand on why, #define can do a lot of things you don't expect it to.  It largely behaves as a text replace in your code, so if you did this:

Code: [Select]

#define something 5

int somethingElse = 5;

You'd get a compilation error.  Why?  Because the compiler would see this:

Code: [Select]

int 5else = 5;


This example actually isn't correct (it sets somethingElse to 5 just as you'd expect), because the preprocessor replaces all occurrences of "something" surrounded by token boundaries (i.e. stuff that couldn't be part of a variable/definition name), not all occurrences of "something" without restrictions. (It also won't replace occurrences of "something" anywhere inside double quotes.)
The exact rules are a bit more nuanced than that, and I'm sure you could find similar examples that do produce unexpected behavior.

[itisnotlogical]

Alright, can somebody explain to me why the majority of C and C++ code I see around (particularly in tutorials and examples) still uses arcane acronyms and abbreviations for variable names? I know C languages have been around since the days when a text file could be a credible threat to your storage capacity, but come on. It's space year 2016, you can spare a few bytes to type out a name that other people can read.

[TheDarkStar]

Alright, can somebody explain to me why the majority of C and C++ code I see around (particularly in tutorials and examples) still uses arcane acronyms and abbreviations for variable names? I know C languages have been around since the days when a text file could be a credible threat to your storage capacity, but come on. It's space year 2016, you can spare a few bytes to type out a name that other people can read.

It's probably habit. Also, it might not cause space issues, but it takes more time to write out something that's long.

[Rose]

Alright, can somebody explain to me why the majority of C and C++ code I see around (particularly in tutorials and examples) still uses arcane acronyms and abbreviations for variable names? I know C languages have been around since the days when a text file could be a credible threat to your storage capacity, but come on. It's space year 2016, you can spare a few bytes to type out a name that other people can read.

It's probably habit. Also, it might not cause space issues, but it takes more time to write out something that's long.

I see you are not familiar with any IDE ever.

[Parsely]

Alright, can somebody explain to me why the majority of C and C++ code I see around (particularly in tutorials and examples) still uses arcane acronyms and abbreviations for variable names? I know C languages have been around since the days when a text file could be a credible threat to your storage capacity, but come on. It's space year 2016, you can spare a few bytes to type out a name that other people can read.

It's probably habit. Also, it might not cause space issues, but it takes more time to write out something that's long.

Even Notepad++ has tab complete.

[Reelya]

Maybe tutorial code tries to minimize the amount of typing for noobs?

[TheDarkStar]

Alright, can somebody explain to me why the majority of C and C++ code I see around (particularly in tutorials and examples) still uses arcane acronyms and abbreviations for variable names? I know C languages have been around since the days when a text file could be a credible threat to your storage capacity, but come on. It's space year 2016, you can spare a few bytes to type out a name that other people can read.

It's probably habit. Also, it might not cause space issues, but it takes more time to write out something that's long.

Even Notepad++ has tab complete.

Not the first time you type it

[Mephisto]

So there's a document floating around the net that lots of you have probably seen. We mocked the guy at work yesterday but no one has posted it here yet.

Here you go. This guy runs a company, manages people, and has lots of clout with other people who also run companies and manage people.

[i2amroy]

Even Notepad++ has tab complete.

Not the first time you type it

That's fine... until you have two different long-named variables in the same file with similar names. If I have "distraction_runaway_bombs" and "distraction_runaway_cops" then I'm going to have to type out "distraction_runaway_c" before tab complete will properly complete it to "distraction_runaway_cops" instead of "distraction_runaway_bombs". Of course that's still no excuse for using things like "ctlrdr" as variable/function names, which is a horrible practice that colleges are doing their best to stamp out. Names should be in a happy medium length where they are long enough to be descriptive, but there's no need to, for example, prepend the program name to every single variable and make variables like "my_program_7_the_really_cool_variable_that_tracks_how_hot_the_player_is" either.

[EnigmaticHat]

So there's a document floating around the net that lots of you have probably seen. We mocked the guy at work yesterday but no one has posted it here yet.

Here you go. This guy runs a company, manages people, and has lots of clout with other people who also run companies and manage people.

Overwork your employees, promise them money but don't actually pay them much, do whatever you can to keep them from leaving the company on their own terms = good employees.

Wage slaves = bad employees.

Okay then.

[i2amroy]

So there's a document floating around the net that lots of you have probably seen. We mocked the guy at work yesterday but no one has posted it here yet.

Here you go. This guy runs a company, manages people, and has lots of clout with other people who also run companies and manage people.

That just goes so good with yesterday's Three Panel Soul comic:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Willfor]

Maybe tutorial code tries to minimize the amount of typing for noobs?

If it's this please stop.

I bounced off of so many C and C++ tutorials when I was starting out because the names were jibberish that I could never figure out what they were trying to be, and therefore never lock them down in my head enough to memorize them. That's why on my first exposure to C# I clung to it like a life raft, and it took many years before I would even bother to look at a piece of C code without cringing.

[Telgin]

Some of the C++ tutorials and examples I've seen are almost impenetrable.  I'm pretty familiar with the language and it still took me a lot of banging my head against code examples to figure out how to use map containers correctly, largely because the code examples were just a lot of template garbage with either no comments or unhelpful comments.  Didn't help that g++ gives even more impenetrable template garbage when you get it wrong.

Well formatted C isn't too ugly or hard to parse for me, but a lot of tutorials (and programmers...) do not use well formatted C.  C++ on the other hand, feels to me like it invariably becomes ugly when a program becomes nontrivial.

So there's a document floating around the net that lots of you have probably seen. We mocked the guy at work yesterday but no one has posted it here yet.

Here you go. This guy runs a company, manages people, and has lots of clout with other people who also run companies and manage people.

Huh.  I'm not sure how to classify myself by his standards since I'm single, have no interest in a girlfriend or wife and yet I'm motivated by money and can be burnt out of my own accord.  I guess I don't fit his mold well enough to be employed by him.  I'm a maverick that might do something crazy.

[i2amroy]

Well formatted C isn't too ugly or hard to parse for me, but a lot of tutorials (and programmers...) do not use well formatted C.  C++ on the other hand, feels to me like it invariably becomes ugly when a program becomes nontrivial.

Well-formatted C++ looks just as good as well-formatted C, (and has the advantage of more names coming from the std library and being standardized rather than being whatever that particular coder decided to call their queue structure). The big problem is that since C++ has more tools given to the user out of the box, it means that those people who still hold onto the ancient "impenetrable named stuff" traditions can mess things up even worse than they would be able to do with out of the box C. (Though yeah, a good Clang compiler that actually gives sensible, human-readable error output on compilation is something I suggest to anyone who has the hardware/software combinations that support it).

[itisnotlogical]

C and C++ (barring header files, #include instead of using, minor syntax differences) actually looks a lot like C#. Semicolons for line endings, function declarations have the format "type name (arguments)", code goes inside curly braces, etc.

Most unintelligible C/++ that I've seen is because the 1337 h4ck3r writing the tutorial/document/etc. wants to use fostrdr (File Output STReam DiRectory) instead of outDir, output_directory, outputDir, or any other reasonable human-readable way of writing this pretend variable name.