Use of abbreviations in scripts

Ken Ray kray at sonsothunder.com
Sun Oct 15 19:17:08 EDT 2006


On 10/15/06 4:18 PM, "Dar Scott" <dsc at swcp.com> wrote:

> So, my question to all, since it seems to be OK and even "in" to use
> abbreviations, how about for examples on this list where newbies read
> scripts?  Should those be spelled out or should newbies learn to read
> abbrev early?  (The word "should" should be read in the most generous
> sense in all places.)

Personally, I think that newbies should be exposed to all forms of
Revolution programming so that they can make their own decisions on how they
want to code.
 
> Slightly related:  I sometimes use f(x) instead of 'the f of x' where
> I think it is more readable, especially within a more math-like
> expression. 

It's funny you mention it, I was looking at someone else's code today, and
noticed they were getting the path to the Temporary folder in this way:

  put the specialFolderPath of "Temporary" into TempFolder

This seemed quite odd to me because I've always used the specialFolderPath
function with parentheses... and it also seemed odd to me because it didn't
follow what I felt was "English" convention - it should have been something
like:

  put the specialFolderPath of the folder "Temporary" into TempFolder

So sometimes it "makes sense" to use "the f of x" format, and sometimes it
makes sense to use the "f(x)" format. It all depends on what "makes sense"
to whom...

> Oh, and here is one Andre might understand, "cd" looks like "cdr" to
> me, an "abbreviation" for "first".

Pardon me, but how does "cdr" act as an abbreviation for "first"? (Sorry, I
don't "get it"). :-)

To me, I automatically replace the abbreviations with the appropriate noun
while I'm reading it... so I don't read this:

  put the text of fld 1 of bg "Test" into tTemp

as

  "put the text of fuld one of bee-gee Text into tee-Temp"

but as:

  "put the text of field one of background Text into tee-Temp"

To each their own, I say... whatever is most comfortable and efficient...

Ken Ray
Sons of Thunder Software
Web site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/
Email: kray at sonsothunder.com




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