Post #3326371

2026-06-15 15:57 UTC

I guess strxfrm and the like date back to a period in the 80s when symbol names had to be kept short for the compiler/interpreter’s sake. Like while BASIC back in those days technically allowed > 8 chr names, the interpreter only stored the first 8. In other words, the first 8 needed to be unique. As such, people tended to stick with <= 8 chr symbols to avoid interpreter issues. I think C allowed up to 31? But the culture of <= 8 prevailed nevertheless. Then in the 90s, such restrictions were largely dropped in most languages, and symbol names ballooned in size to take advantage of this new freedom. In C++, you even had reserved words growing to the likes of reinterpret_cast around that time, but APIs just got ridiculous along the lines lengthy_class_name_followed_by_fully_spelled_out_method. Today, people seem to have come to their senses and settled on more reasonable lengths, though not to 80s extremes. Like going back to C++, we have new reserved words like decltype and constexpr. In the 90s, these would likely have been spelled out in full like constant_expression?

Replies (2)

@BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works 2026-06-15 17:10

Then in the 90s, such restrictions were largely dropped in most languages, and symbol names ballooned in size to take advantage of this new freedom. But with great freedom comes great responsibility. I think Microsoft went from digestion noices to indirectly advertising their stake in arthritis medicine. I mean my fingers ache just looking at C# or PowerShell. What was so wrong about puts or cout? I know it’s not the most intricate functions, but going from a 4chr function to “Console.WriteLine()” is a symbol. And as long as I’m already a riled up old fart, let me tell you about autocompletion. Why does MS have to autocomplete entire commands from ambiguous strings? And the kids don’t get it. They don’t even write the code anymore, let alone understand it… I want coffee flavoured coffee, heavy metal and for dark mode to fucking die! That felt better, I’m sorry for anybody making it this long.

Open ##3326803
@grozzle@lemmy.zip 2026-06-15 19:54

i still have a vague mistrust of file extensions longer than three characters. like a glass walkway, i know .jpeg is just as safe as .jpg, but there’s a hint of uneasiness.

Open ##3327792