[PD] about [prepend] on osx

Krzysztof Czaja czaja at chopin.edu.pl
Sat Nov 26 20:59:15 CET 2005


Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
...
> believe that abbreviations in code cause a lot more trouble than they  
> save.  Something along these lines:
> 
> "Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what  
> to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we  
> want a computer to do."
>                         -Donald Knuth

which is why instructions for a computer should be kept short.
In Knuth's WEB there is @d, not @define, @i, not @include, etc.
Likewise, library prefix should not clutter the content.  Its
main purpose is to instruct a computer where it is supposed to
look for an object's definition.  For a reader of a patch
"cyclone/" means no more than "nonstandard/".

> I, for one, do not have an endless memory for abbreviations.  I think I  
> share that trait with the majority of population.  Consider yourselves  
> fortunate if you do have such a memory, but please humor the rest of  us.

why the irony?  I proposed cc as an option, after all.  But ok,
I can live without it, although it is only one little, simple to
remember, hard-to-misspell abbreviation with a slight pun in it.

Krzysztof




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