Electronics Circuits & Tutorials - Electronics Hobby Projects - A Complete Electronic Resource Centre
Electronics Circuits & Tutorials

Home About us Electronic Tutorials Engineering Hobby Projects Online Dictionaries Contact us
Tutorials
  • Basic/Beginners
  • Intermediate/Advance
  • Microcontrollers
  • Microprocessors
  • Electronics Symbols
  • Electronics Formulas
  • Dictionary of Units

     more....

Dictionaries
  • Electronics Terms
  • Abbreviations
  • Computer Terms
  • Physics Glossary
  • Science Glossary
  • Space & Solar Terms
  • Semiconductor Symbols / Abbreviation
  • Radio Terminology Bibliography

     more....

Projects
  • Engineering Projects
Home > Electronics Tutorials > Online Computer Terms Dictionary > h

Online Computer Terms Dictionary - H

Hungarian Notation

<language, convention> A linguistic convention requiring one or more letters to be added to the start of variable names to denote scope and/or type.

Hungarian Notation is mainly confined to Microsoft Windows programming environments, such as Microsoft C, C++ and Visual Basic. It was originally devised by Charles Simonyi, a Hungarian, who was a senior programmer at Microsoft for many years. He disliked the way that names in C programs gave no clue as to the type, leading to frequent programmer errors.

According to legend, fellow programmers at Microsoft, on seeing the convoluted, vowel-less variable names produced by his scheme, said, "This might as well be in Greek - or even Hungarian!". They made up the name "Hungarian notation" (possibly with "reverse Polish notation" in mind).

Hungarian Notation is not really necessary when using a modern strongly-typed language as the compiler warns the programmer if a variable of one type is used as if it were another type. It is less useful in object-oriented programming languages such as C++, where many variables are going to be instances of classes and so begin with "obj".

In addition, variable names are essentially only comments, and thus are just as susceptible to becoming out-of-date and incorrect as any other comment. For example, if a signed short int becomes an unsigned long int, the variable name, and every use of it, should be changed to reflect its new type.

A variable's name should describe the values it holds. Type and scope are aspects of this, but Hungarian Notation overemphasises their importance by allocating so much of the start of the name to them. Furthermore, type and scope information can be found from the variable's declaration. Ironically, this is particularly easy in the development environments in which Hungarian Notation is typically used.

Simonyi's original monograph.

Microsoft VB Naming Conventions.

(2003-09-11)

 


Nearby terms: humor « humour « hung « Hungarian Notation » Hungry Programmers » hungry puppy » Hungry ViewKit
 

Discover
  • C/C++ Language Programming Library
  • Electronic Conversions
  • History of Electronics
  • History of Computers
  • Elec. Power Standards
  • Online Calculator and Conversions
  • Electrical Hazards - Health & Safety
  • Datasheets
  • Quick Reference links
  • Electronics Magazines
  • Career in Electronics
  • EMS Post Tracking

     more......

Home Electronic Tutorials Engineering Hobby Projects Resources Links Sitemap Disclaimer/T&C

Copyright © 1999-2020 www.hobbyprojects.com  (All rights reserved)