I agree wholeheartedly! I still believe in (mostly) self documenting code and that cannot be achieved by using abbreviations.

Max

On 04.07.2013, at 12:52, Torsten Bergmann <astares@gmx.de> wrote:

> Usually I thought only the C/C++ people fell in love with abbreviations - but
> now its our own community:
>
> in Pharo 3.0 one can write:
>
> � � � �Smalltalk os env
>
> or would it be better to use:
>
> � � � �Smalltalk operatingSystem environment
>
> in the future?
>
> So is the current
>
> � � � �Smalltalk vm
>
> better than
>
> � � � �Smalltalk virtualMachine
>
> I know: even a newcomer should know what "OS" means. At least Smalltalkers/Java people should
> know they need a "VM". But nonetheless I think a common goal would be to keep
> Pharo code and method selectors readable and avoid abbreviations when possible.
>
> Also there are Pharo methods like #getEnv: instead of #getEnvironmentVariable:
> (interesting that they wrap the native C/C++ API "GetEnvironmentVariableA"
> which does not use abbreviations)
>
> Should we care (with an issue) and use the more readable forms in
> the future and deprecated the abbreviation forms?
>
> Or will we keep abbreviations for the lazy and easier typing?
>
> If you comment please think about the goal to get readable code, the goal to
> get more newcomers into programming and your own first steps with Smalltalk
> and IT ...
>
>
>
>
>