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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by ashishlotake@mastodon.social to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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[-] fubo@lemmy.world 72 points 1 year ago

Fortran, really.

In Fortran, variables beginning with the letters i through n have integer type by default, whereas all other letters imply a real-number (floating-point) variable. You can change this by declaring a type, but using i for a real is non-obvious.

(Hence the old joke, "God is real — unless declared integer.")

[-] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

idk, this arbitrary i-n range behaving differently than other variables sounds like a terrible source of weird bugs to me. I don't think variable names should ever change a program's behavior.

edit:

Many old Fortran 77 programs uses these implicit rules, but you should not! The probability of errors in your program grows dramatically if you do not consistently declare your variables.

source

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.de 29 points 1 year ago

This comes from early years, when FORTRAN was introduced and the programmers needed to save space in the punch cards. Today, to avoid this possible source of bugs, you usually state "implicit none" in the preamble.

[-] GregoryTheGreat@programming.dev 20 points 1 year ago

So I’ve been an engineer doing code ports to newer versions of Fortran. I never knew why that was at the top of every file. Thank you.

[-] relative_iterator@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago

Interesting. I assumed i for iterator.

[-] fubo@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

i, j, k are commonly used as subscripts in linear algebra, too.

i^2 = j^2 = k^2 = ijk =-1

[-] juliebean@lemm.ee 58 points 1 year ago

in programming, and in mathematics, it's always been weird to me that frequently paired variables are basically the most easily confused for one another pairs, especially when written quickly or sloppily.

  • i and j
  • x and y
  • m and n
[-] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

exactly, this is so annoying. I don't know by first-hand experience, but I also think p and q are confusing for dyslexic people.

[-] juliebean@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

i knew i was forgetting some other common pairings, thank you. p/q and u/v always bugged me too.

[-] VisualBuilder4@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago

u and v were so difficult for me to differentiate in handwriting. My handwriting is not that pretty and the difference between a round bottom and a sharp bottom is not that big when stressed in an exam.

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Like in math: given are the vector fields u, nu and v and the normal vector n ...

[-] rolaulten@startrek.website 3 points 1 year ago

Interesting footnote about p and q. You see them turn up on formal logic proofs (for philosophy)

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

I think your problem is with the alphabet, friend

M as in mancy

[-] Sam@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 year ago

I always like to joke in coding interviews that I really like to make variable names as long as I can so they are very precisely named. Then when I get to a double nested loop I hit them with iterator and jiterator instead of I and j

[-] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Unless they're indices, do yourself a favor and use meaningful names instead.

I avoid index iterations the most I can tbh. And for nested loops,i and k is more readable.

[-] fidodo@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

Even for indexes I do index or something more specific for what it's indexing. Any simple iteration I just do map or each so the only time I ever need to actually index things is for more complex scenarios in which case it's worth it to have better names. Also with modem IDEs, auto complete is really good so you don't need to write a full variable name more than once.

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

When I was a baby coder back in the 90s we were taught that these names were meant to save space in the symbol table because at one time space was so limited that naming your variable n rather than numElementsInArray would have an impact

[-] tkarika@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

This is the way.

[-] GodIsNull@feddit.de 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

i for index or iteration. Using j, k, l... in loops signals (imho) that there is most likely an outer loop and the one using j, k, l are nested. x and y of course are carthesian coordinates . n is used as amount of substance in SI-unit-system, m is mass, maybe thats why it is used as amount of items in a set (Menge).

Programming computers have started to solve mathematical problems and math already used these symbols for centuries(?), so why you should change them? They are well established even in simple school mathematics. And at the end of the day a computer is nothing more than a calculator.

[-] db2@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 year ago

x = "Am I a joke to you?";

[-] A10@kerala.party 9 points 1 year ago

I haven't used I and J after college

[-] Knusper@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

I've hardly ever looped over indices after college. For-each loops solve 99% of real-world problems in a better way.

Hi there! Your text contains links to other Lemmy communities, here are correct links for Lemmy users: !programmerhumor@lemmy.ml

[-] youRFate@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Usually variables like that can be avoided with itterators nowadays. If they can’t I like to use idx, if they are nested I name them after what they index, like idx_rows, idx_cols.

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

I prefer to use K in for loops, but that's just me.

this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
319 points (88.4% liked)

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