EyeTracking Study: camelCase vs. under_score style (2010) [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

EyeTracking Study: camelCase vs. under_score style (2010) [pdf]

cs.kent.edu

34 pointsentelechy15 comments

In Perl 6, you can also use "kebab-case":

    my $is-it-time = True;

The hyphen is allowed inside an identifier as long as it is not the first and as long as it is followed by at least one letter.

    my $foo-42;  # interpreted as my $foo - 42

This is also the standard for Common Lisp, Scheme, emacs-lisp.

Also Bash (for function names) (could be POSIX too), Make ...

My current style convention mixes several naming styles to help in distinguishing code visually.

I prefer camelCase for variables, which need to be typed repeatedly, and camel is fastest to type. I use snake_case for functions, UpperCamelCase for classes/types, and ALL_CAPS_SNAKE for configuration variables a user would be expected to edit.

What language is that in? Conventions tend to follow with programming languages.

In C, snake case is historically the default, but I tend to use UpperCamelCase for functions, UpperCamelCase for file-level static variables, lowerCamelCase for function-level static variables and ALL_CAPS_SNAKE for #defines.

    camel is fastest to type

iAgree but englishIsAlso fasterToType byRemovingSpacesAnd capitalizingFewerWordsThan usual. iDonT knowWhy weProgrammers shouldConsiderThat aWorthwhile tradeOff

iThink theGermansWouldAgree.

For me it's more about ease in typing. I find typing underscore so many times a bug deterrent in fast typing speed.

snake case...

I did it for years in Perl then moved to camel with Java. Now, I sort of like not having to type underscores.

I went the other way. I like it when my code doesn't look like a jumble of random letters with the least important words capitalized.

I went back and forth, both ways. I started out in Python with snake_case identifiers, then moved to Javascript with camelCase, and now I mostly use Rust with snake_case for names and UpperCamelCase for types.

I don't find either style better than the other, the only time I notice anything is when I switch between style conventions (e.g. switch between JS and Rust or C++), because I need to break the habit of typing one way rather than the other.

Still, I find readability of the two styles pretty much identical at all times once you get used to both.

I mostly find the readability the same, except for acronyms in the middle. RemoteHTTPIPAddr vs remote_http_ip_addr. I prefer the latter, but my go-to language these days encourages the former.

I work in telecoms where there are so many acronyms that snakeCase is really painful (but we still use it). As for your second example, why not remote_HTTP_IP_addr ? Even more readable IMHO.

The "What is an acronym really and when should it be capitalised" debate is grey enough that it's easier to consistently use

RemoteHttpIpAddr

Not capitalizing the entire acronym is the convention in modern Java and C#.

https://google.github.io/styleguide/javaguide.html#s5.3-came...

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/ms182249%...

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