Class names that start with C

Question

The MFC has all class names that start with C. For example, CFile and CGdiObject. Has anyone seen it used elsewhere? Is there an official naming convention guide from Microsoft that recommends this style? Did the idea originate with MFC or was it some other project?

Answer 1

Something a bit similar is used in Symbian C++, where the convention is that:

T classes are "values", for example TChar, TInt32, TDes

R classes are handles to kernel (or other) resources, for example RFile, RSocket

M classes are mixins, which includes interfaces (construed as mixins with no function implementations). The guideline is that multiple inheritance should involve at most 1 non-M class.

C classes are pretty much everything else, and derive from CBase, which has some stuff in it to help with resource-handling.

HBufC exists primarily to generate confused posts on Symbian forums, and having its very own prefix is just the start. The H stands for "huh?", or possibly "Haw, haw! You have no STL!" ;-)

This is close in spirit to Apps Hungarian Notation rather than Systems Hungarian notation. The prefix tells you something about the class which you could look up in the documentation, but which you would not know otherwise. The whole point of naming anything in programming is to provide such hints and reminders, otherwise you'd just call your classes "Class001", "Class002", etc.

Systems Hungarian just tells you the type of a variable, which IMO is nothing to get very excited about, especially in a language like C++ where types tend to be either repeated constantly or else completely hidden by template parameters. Its analogue when naming types is the Java practice of naming all interfaces with I. Again, I don't get very excited about this (and neither do the standard Java libraries), but if you're going to define an interface for every class, in addition to the interfaces which are actually used for polymorphism in non-test situations, then you need some way to distinguish the two.

Answer 2

It's evil. Don't use Hungarian Notation for anything but abstracted things.

For instance, btnSubmit is ok to describe a button named Submit(which would have an accompanying lblSubmit for the label next to the button)

But things like CMyClass for Class and uiCount for unsigned integer named count does not help programmers and just leads to extra wasteful typing.

Answer 3

That was a old C++ coding style, and MFC was probably one of the last things to use it.

It was usually just a convention of C++ (and maybe a few other languages), and hence it started falling out of favor as the languages became more interoperable, through COM and then .NET.

You still see it's cousin, the "I" prefix for interfaces, pretty often. I've always found it interesting that "I" survived when "C" died, but that was probably because interfaces were used so heavily in COM interoperability.

Answer 4

I remember Borland compilers were comming with libraries where class names started with 'T'. Probably for "type" :)

Answer 5

Years ago naming convention is crucial to help identifying the class, type of even the grouping of the class. Dont forget back then there was no namespace and no/limited intellisense available. C is a form of Hungarian notation but certainly made popular by MFC. Borland and Delphi was using T - as prefix for Type

Answer 6

While MFC and lots of software written for Windows used the "C" convention for classes, you generally don't find the latter in software written for UNIX platforms. I think it was a habit very strongly encouraged by Visual C++. I remember that Visual C++ 6.0 would prefix a "C" to any classes that one created with the class wizard.

Answer 7

I can't answer all your questions, but as far as I know, it's just to distinguish the MFC classes from other classes -- a form of Hungarian Notation.

Interestingly, it's apparently controversial not just outside MS, but inside as well.

Answer 8

See here : http://www.jelovic.com/articles/stupid_naming.htm for a long article on this issue.

Answer 9

Such conventions for variables are useful for languages like Fortran where you don't need to declare the types of your variables before using them. I seem to recall that variables who's names started with "i" or "j" defaulted to integers, and variables who's names started with "r" and other letters defaulted to real (float) values.

That people use similar for languages where you do need to declare variables - or for class definitions - is probably just a relic of someone misunderstanding the old code conventions from languages like Fortran where it actually mattered.

Answer 10

When writing applications that use the Qt libraries, we use a naming convention that distinguishes classes that are directly or indirectly derived from QObject from classes that aren't. This is useful because you can tell from the class name whether or not it supports signals/slots, properties, and all the other goodies that come from QObject.

Answer 11

we use it at work, like many other naming conventions

by many I meant C for classes, p for pointer, m_ for members, s_ for static members, n for integer ... not many documents

Answer 12

personally I find that hungarian notation helps me, in that I can look at a screen full of variables and instantly know what they are as I try and absorb the logic. Your only argument against it I see is "extra typing"