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by JBiserkov 4220 days ago
>Encoding the type of a function into the name (so-called Hungarian notation) is brain damaged - the compiler knows the types anyway and can check those, and it only confuses the programmer. No wonder MicroSoft makes buggy programs.

"Making Wrong Code Look Wrong" by Joel Spolsky is a must-read and contains an explanation of Apps Hungarian (the original, thoughtful one) vs Systems Hungarian http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Wrong.html
2 comments
humanrebar 4220 days ago
C is not a strongly typed language and it does not allow function overloading. C projects should allow for some flexibility in naming notations to make up for those language design decisions.

Also, any project that uses int return codes shouldn't be leaning too heavily on type safety.

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juliangregorian 4220 days ago
This is really interesting. I was about to correct you since I remembered using function overloading, but then I double checked and it was indeed C++. I knew about C++'s name mangling from having coded against it in FFI, but never knew why it existed: the name mangling is what allows C++ to have function overloading. Light bulb!
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cbd1984 4220 days ago
Right. Use Hungarian to encode information the type system can't represent. This is relevant even in object oriented languages, such as distinguishing between escaped and unescaped strings.
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