May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Does anyone know how this convention started. Does the "s" stand for
"source" string, for example. Or is it as simple as s="string",
i="integer" and the next string would be t, u, v, etc.
Thanks
22  1432 
mdh said:
May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Does anyone know how this convention started. Does the "s" stand for
"source" string, for example.
I hope not, because that's not the source - it's the target!
Or is it as simple as s="string",
i="integer" and the next string would be t, u, v, etc.
Yeah, I think that's the most likely explanation. Certainly, when I
demonstrate strcpy, I use char *u = s to hold the return value.
--
Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk>
Email: -www. +rjh@
Google users: <http://www.cpax.org.uk/prg/writings/googly.php>
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
....... two strings are given as *s and *t.
Does anyone know how this convention started. Does the "s" stand for
"source" string, for example.
I hope not, because that's not the source - it's the target!
Or is it as simple as s="string",
i="integer" and the next string would be t, u, v, etc.
RH wrote:
Yeah, I think that's the most likely explanation. Certainly, when I
demonstrate strcpy, I use char *u = s to hold the return value.
tks Richard.
On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:04:03 +0000, Richard Heathfield rote:
>mdh said:
>May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Certainly, when I
demonstrate strcpy, I use char *u = s to hold the return value.
To wit, real gurus use one-letter names.
--
Roland Pibinger
"The best software is simple, elegant, and full of drama" - Grady Booch
Roland Pibinger said:
On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:04:03 +0000, Richard Heathfield rote:
>>mdh said:
>>May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Certainly, when I
demonstrate strcpy, I use char *u = s to hold the return value.
To wit, real gurus use one-letter names.
Only when it's obvious what they're for, as in this case.
--
Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk>
Email: -www. +rjh@
Google users: <http://www.cpax.org.uk/prg/writings/googly.php>
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Roland Pibinger skrev:
To wit, real gurus use one-letter names.
As do mathematicians.
August
Roland Pibinger wrote:
>
On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:04:03 +0000, Richard Heathfield rote:
mdh said:
May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Certainly, when I
demonstrate strcpy, I use char *u = s to hold the return value.
To wit, real gurus use one-letter names.
Which means that the standard's description of string.h
was written by gurus,
and that the standard's description of stdlib.h
was written by neophytes.
void *memset(void *s, int c, size_t n;
void *bsearch(const void *key, const void *base,
size_t nmemb, size_t size,
int (*compar)(const void *, const void *));
Either that, or your comment is silly.
--
pete
August Karlstrom <fu********@comhem.sewrites:
Roland Pibinger skrev:
>To wit, real gurus use one-letter names.
As do mathematicians.
Or, as they prefer to call themselves, m.
--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) ks***@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <* <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
"We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this."
-- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"
In article <L-******************************@bt.com>, Richard Heathfield
<rj*@see.sig.invalidwrites
>Roland Pibinger said:
>On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:04:03 +0000, Richard Heathfield rote:
>>>mdh said:
May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Certainly, when I
demonstrate strcpy, I use char *u = s to hold the return value.
To wit, real gurus use one-letter names.
Only when it's obvious what they're for, as in this case.
Stroustrup once suggested that [now we have unicode] function names
should all be one character but have a different colour to indicate
their use. So you could have 256 functions called A() :-)
--
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills Staffs England /\/\/\/\/
/\/\/ ch***@phaedsys.org www.phaedsys.org \/\/\
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
On Jul 4, 1:54 pm, Chris Hills <c...@phaedsys.orgwrote:
>
Stroustrup once suggested that [now we have unicode] function names
should all be one character but have a different colour to indicate
their use. So you could have 256 functions called A() :-)
oh..great!! That's all I need!!! :-)
In article <11**********************@e9g2000prf.googlegroups. com>, mdh
<md**@comcast.netwrites
>On Jul 4, 1:54 pm, Chris Hills <c...@phaedsys.orgwrote:
>>
Stroustrup once suggested that [now we have unicode] function names
should all be one character but have a different colour to indicate
their use. So you could have 256 functions called A() :-)
oh..great!! That's all I need!!! :-)
Caveat: It was after mid-night in a restaurant and there was a lot of
beer about :-)
--
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills Staffs England /\/\/\/\/
/\/\/ ch***@phaedsys.org www.phaedsys.org \/\/\
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
mdh wrote:
>
May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Does anyone know how this convention started. Does the "s" stand for
"source" string, for example. Or is it as simple as s="string",
i="integer" and the next string would be t, u, v, etc.
They are just labels, and only valid within the function. There is
no special meaning. Change them if you like, you won't affect the
code (but maybe the debugging info).
--
<http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt>
<http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/423>
<http://www.aaxnet.com/editor/edit043.html>
cbfalconer at maineline dot net
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
Chris Hills wrote:
<md**@comcast.netwrites
>Chris Hills <c...@phaedsys.orgwrote:
>>Stroustrup once suggested that [now we have unicode] function
names should all be one character but have a different colour to
indicate their use. So you could have 256 functions called A() :-)
oh..great!! That's all I need!!! :-)
Caveat: It was after mid-night in a restaurant and there was a
lot of beer about :-)
Making programming unavailable to the color-blind. Whee.
--
<http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt>
<http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/423>
<http://www.aaxnet.com/editor/edit043.html>
cbfalconer at maineline dot net
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
Chris Hills <ch***@phaedsys.orgwrites:
In article <L-******************************@bt.com>, Richard Heathfield
<rj*@see.sig.invalidwrites
Roland Pibinger said:
On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:04:03 +0000, Richard Heathfield rote:
mdh said:
May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Certainly, when I
demonstrate strcpy, I use char *u = s to hold the return value.
To wit, real gurus use one-letter names.
Only when it's obvious what they're for, as in this case.
Stroustrup once suggested that [now we have unicode] function names
should all be one character but have a different colour to indicate their
use. So you could have 256 functions called A() :-)
http://www.colorforth.com/cf.html
Yours,
--
Jean-Marc
"Chris Hills" <ch***@phaedsys.orgha scritto nel messaggio news:XH**************@phaedsys.demon.co.uk...
In article <L-******************************@bt.com>, Richard Heathfield <rj*@see.sig.invalidwrites
>>Roland Pibinger said:
>>On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:04:03 +0000, Richard Heathfield rote:
mdh said:
May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Certainly, when I
demonstrate strcpy, I use char *u = s to hold the return value.
To wit, real gurus use one-letter names.
Only when it's obvious what they're for, as in this case.
Stroustrup once suggested that [now we have unicode] function names should all be one character but have a different colour to
indicate their use. So you could have 256 functions called A() :-)
In maths, you can't use several letters for a name (ab would mean
a times b), but there are plenty of capital letters, greek letters,
strange diacritics, subscripts etc. to have enough symbols. But I
once resorted to use a cyrillic l for a length when I was already
using L, l and a greek lambda in the problem.
Chris Hills <ch***@phaedsys.orgwrote:
In article <L-******************************@bt.com>, Richard Heathfield
<rj*@see.sig.invalidwrites
Roland Pibinger said:
On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:04:03 +0000, Richard Heathfield rote:
mdh said:
May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Certainly, when I
demonstrate strcpy, I use char *u = s to hold the return value.
To wit, real gurus use one-letter names.
Only when it's obvious what they're for, as in this case.
Stroustrup once suggested that [now we have unicode] function names
should all be one character but have a different colour to indicate
their use. So you could have 256 functions called A() :-)
I strongly doubt that. Stroustrup is not a fool (for all that he
designed C++ ;-) ) and he is certainly not stupid enough to confuse
character sets with colour.
Richard
In article <46*****************@news.xs4all.nl>, Richard Bos
<rl*@hoekstra-uitgeverij.nlwrites
>Chris Hills <ch***@phaedsys.orgwrote:
>In article <L-******************************@bt.com>, Richard Heathfield
<rj*@see.sig.invalidwrites
>Roland Pibinger said:
On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:04:03 +0000, Richard Heathfield rote:
mdh said:
May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Certainly, when I
demonstrate strcpy, I use char *u = s to hold the return value.
To wit, real gurus use one-letter names.
Only when it's obvious what they're for, as in this case.
Stroustrup once suggested that [now we have unicode] function names
should all be one character but have a different colour to indicate
their use. So you could have 256 functions called A() :-)
I strongly doubt that.
I was there when he said it. However did you miss the caveat?
Stroustrup is not a fool (for all that he
designed C++ ;-) ) and he is certainly not stupid enough to confuse
character sets with colour.
You had to have been there really.
--
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills Staffs England /\/\/\/\/
/\/\/ ch***@phaedsys.org www.phaedsys.org \/\/\
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
On Jul 6, 7:05 am, Chris Hills <c...@phaedsys.orgwrote:
>
>Stroustrup once suggested that [now we have unicode] function names
should all be one character but have a different colour to indicate
their use. So you could have 256 functions called A() :-)
I strongly doubt that.
I was there when he said it. However did you miss the caveat?
Stroustrupis not a fool (for all that he
designed C++ ;-) ) and he is certainly not stupid enough to confuse
character sets with colour.
You had to have been there really.
B Stroustrup: Generalizing Overloading for C++2000. Overload, Issue
25. April 1, 1998. Note the date. http://www.research.att.com/~bs/whitespace98.pdf
-- Bjarne Stroustrup; http://www.research.att.com/~bs
On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 20:02:03 +0000, pete wrote:
Roland Pibinger wrote:
>>
On Wed, 04 Jul 2007 17:04:03 +0000, Richard Heathfield rote:
>mdh said:
May I ask something that has often puzzled me in C.
In K&R, for example (p106), in explaining their version of strcmp,
pointers to the two strings are given as *s and *t.
Certainly, when I
demonstrate strcpy, I use char *u = s to hold the return value.
To wit, real gurus use one-letter names.
Which means that the standard's description of string.h
was written by gurus,
and that the standard's description of stdlib.h
was written by neophytes.
void *memset(void *s, int c, size_t n;
void *bsearch(const void *key, const void *base,
size_t nmemb, size_t size,
int (*compar)(const void *, const void *));
Either that, or your comment is silly.
If you count how many vowels are used in function names in
string.h, and how many ones in stdlib.h, you might have some
insight of why they needed gurus for the former but normal people
sufficed for the latter.
--
Army1987
(Replace "NOSPAM" with "email")
bjarne wrote:
On Jul 6, 7:05 am, Chris Hills <c...@phaedsys.orgwrote:
>>>Stroustrup once suggested that [now we have unicode] function names
should all be one character but have a different colour to indicate
their use. So you could have 256 functions called A() :-)
I strongly doubt that.
I was there when he said it. However did you miss the caveat?
>>Stroustrupis not a fool (for all that he
designed C++ ;-) ) and he is certainly not stupid enough to confuse
character sets with colour.
You had to have been there really.
B Stroustrup: Generalizing Overloading for C++2000. Overload, Issue
25. April 1, 1998. Note the date. http://www.research.att.com/~bs/whitespace98.pdf
-- Bjarne Stroustrup; http://www.research.att.com/~bs
That made my day!
Army1987 wrote, On 06/07/07 20:08:
On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:19:03 -0400, David T. Ashley wrote:
<snip discussion about short names>
>It is the same for function parameters ... "s" and "t" are fine. It adds no
value to say "source" and "target".
Too bad that, in that prototype of strcpy(), s stood for target
and t stood for source.
No, s stands for "stick it 'ere" and t stands for "take it from 'ere".
You not learnt English proper? ;-)
>And even for a formal parameter that is more complex, I'd be more likely to
add a comment than to type the same long name over and over again. For
example:
Agreed. One is more likely to misspell representation than repr,
for example.
There is a balance to be struck, as in all things. How do I know "repr"
isn't the "reprisal" flag?
--
Flash Gordon
Not being serious, for once.
On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 21:33:55 +0100, Flash Gordon wrote:
Army1987 wrote, On 06/07/07 20:08:
>On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 12:19:03 -0400, David T. Ashley wrote:
<snip discussion about short names>
>>It is the same for function parameters ... "s" and "t" are fine. It adds no
value to say "source" and "target".
Too bad that, in that prototype of strcpy(), s stood for target
and t stood for source.
No, s stands for "stick it 'ere" and t stands for "take it from 'ere".
You not learnt English proper? ;-)
>>And even for a formal parameter that is more complex, I'd be more likely to
add a comment than to type the same long name over and over again. For
example:
Agreed. One is more likely to misspell representation than repr,
for example.
There is a balance to be struck, as in all things. How do I know "repr"
isn't the "reprisal" flag?
void printrepr(sometype *obj)
{
unsigned char[sizeof *obj]; /* representation */
...
}
or:
damage_t revenge(enemy_t *enemy, damage_t damage)
{
static int repr = 0; /* reprisal */
...
}
(But you'd need longer names if you plan to use both in the same
scope...)
--
Army1987
(Replace "NOSPAM" with "email")
bjarne <bj****@gmail.comwrote:
On Jul 6, 7:05 am, Chris Hills <c...@phaedsys.orgwrote:
>>Stroustrup once suggested that [now we have unicode] function names
>should all be one character but have a different colour to indicate
>their use. So you could have 256 functions called A() :-)
>I strongly doubt that.
I was there when he said it. However did you miss the caveat?
I didn't miss a caveat, because there was none. Neither did I miss the
smiley, but since smilies can mean anything from "he didn't mean that"
through "I didn't mean that" and "he did mean it and I thought it was
funny" to "this makes me happy", I could not draw any conclusion from
it.
>Stroustrupis not a fool (for all that he
>designed C++ ;-) ) and he is certainly not stupid enough to confuse
>character sets with colour.
You had to have been there really.
B Stroustrup: Generalizing Overloading for C++2000. Overload, Issue
25. April 1, 1998. Note the date.
This, however, is quite conclusive. ( :-) (fourth meaning))
Richard This thread has been closed and replies have been disabled. Please start a new discussion. Similar topics
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