Day 20 - A world without underscores!!!

The beginning of a variable should not be an underscore - the first time I came across an underscore - as far as I can remember. Right from that day I hated underscores. Why does this world need an underscore? Couldn’t we have email ids if there was no underscore? Couldn’t we have variables without an underscore? Won’t we get free colour TVs if there were no underscore? Won’t we get rice at Rs. 2 per kg without an underscore? We would. Then why the hell do we need an underscore?

While I was working as a software engineer (we can have a separate discussion on whether it is right to call what software engineers do “work”, or whether it is right to call people in the software industry as engineers)… Ok. What was I saying…Yes, while I was working as a software engineer, I used to debug programs and create more bugs in the process. However what bugged me most during the process was underscores. Every program had hundreds of underscores. All variables were either read_data, write_data, customer_order, customer_name and hell lot of other underscored variables.

Why do you use an underscore when there is always an option of using a dot? I don’t understand. Here is a list of reasons why we should not use an underscore.

• Effort: You have to press two keys to type an underscore, the shift key and the underscore key. Once you press the shift key, you have to keep it pressed till your index/ring finger (or any other thing that you use to press underscore key) reaches the underscore key. This requires a lot of effort every time. Pressing a dot requires no effort.

• Efficiency: If we assume that for every variable, on an average we have one underscore, then for every variable we have in the program we can save one keystroke. Hence we can create more variables in the programs with the saved time and create more confusion.

• Time_1: It takes more time to press an underscore. An underscore is at a distance of around 2 cms to 3 cms from the shift key in an ordinary keyboard. After pressing the shift key the index/ring finger (or whatever you use to press the underscore key) has to move the distance of 2 cms to 3 cms before the underscore key is pressed. This results in unnecessary wastage of time that is crucial in a software engineer’s life. The time can be used for reading useless blogs like this. It can also be used for writing useless blogs like this.

• More_chance_of_Errors: If pressing the underscore is considered as a transaction, the transaction consists of two tasks. Either both the tasks should be complete or none should be complete (this is some atomicity principle). If the shift key alone is pressed, it will result in missing an underscore and if the underscore key is alone pressed it results in a dash. Hence there are more chances of errors occurring while coding if you use an underscore.

• Sticky_keys: Many a time we find that while we are using a shift key a window pops up and says “Sticky Keys” … This might be a big problem for programmers who do not know what sticky keys are, why they pop up etc. They might become nervous, perspire and finally all keys may become sticky…

• Time_2: The word Underscore takes more time to say than the word Dot. Hence if one of your friends asks you “Machaan, what is the name of the variable used in the sum function da?” you might find it temporally economical to say “Number dot one” than say “Number underscore one”.

• Underscores_more_than_two: When there are more than one successive underscores present in a variable it is very difficult to identify the number of underscores. But more than one dot in succession can be identified. (Type two or more underscores in a notepad and you will find that you get a straight line - Type more than one dot in a notepad and you can clearly identify the individual dots. From this we also find that, a line is a combination of underscores and not a combination of points as we studied in class 5th).

All the above factors that were discussed for variables hold good for email IDs as well.

Leave all the above factors. What hurt me most was seeing comments like

/*This program was written by Siva_Subramaniam */
/* The consumer_utility module was last updated by Alex_Pillai */

Using underscores for writing names!!!

Hence I request all you programmers, email users and any other underscore users to stop using an underscore and start using a dot. Let us stop this whole underscore bungle. Let’s do that before we start answering interviewers “My name Sir, I am Harish underscore Venkadakrishnan and my father is a share underscore market underscore trader.” Let’s create a world where there are no underscores, only dots.

Leo da Mirci always dreamt of a world free of underscores. In his book “Programming in Fancy Sea” he says

“As a programmer, I want to underscore the fact that one should dot one’s i’s and cross one’s t’s but never use an underscore. An underscore can never become a dotted line. I do not dream of a world without war. I do not dream of a world without poverty. I dream of a world without underscores.”


Hope you all under….understood what I wanted to convey. Bye till next time.