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Re:Is there an excuse for short variable names? by aroberge on Saturday February 02, 2013 @04:43PM (#5157462)
Physicist here. I never have to read such long variable names, which would make it much more difficult to spot bugs. I do undertand that long variable names have their place but, when it comes to programming numerical code which is a translation of actual equations, shorter names make it much easier to read and spot mistakes. I do wish that I could use a programming editor that could look like a TeX output on the screen though ...
Re:Is there an excuse for short variable names? by archgoon on Saturday February 02, 2013 @07:00PM (#5157888)
> I do wish that I could use a programming editor that could look like a TeX output on the screen though ...

This was one of the design goals of the Fortress project

http://labs.oracle.com/projects/plrg/Publications/fortress.1...

Scroll down to section 2.3 'Rendering'.

Sadly the project is now defunct.

Re:Is there an excuse for short variable names? by lutusp on Saturday February 02, 2013 @06:54PM (#5157869)
> I do wish that I could use a programming editor that could look like a TeX output on the screen though ...

For other readers (I suspect you already know this), Mathematica and Sage (and other environments) do a pretty good job of providing TeX-like feedback on what you've just typed in (but not keystroke-by-keystroke, which would be nice).

For those unfamiliar with Sage:

http://www.sagemath.org/

My Sage tutorial:

http://arachnoid.com/sage