Computer geek query: Why did they invent _ (underscore) ?

[steve2470]

A burning issue that has disrupted my sleep for nine years now.

:-)

[ironman202]

1. it was the lawyers...

it's a safe bet...besides, who will naysay blaming the lawyers? except the lawyers...

[Blue_In_AK]

19. [Smile] probably so...

Back before computers and word processors, we legal types had to underline case names because we didn't have italics on regular typewriters.

[King Coal]

2. As a substitute for the minus sign.

[0rganism]

3. Why is this a computer geek query?

Underscore keys have been around since mechanical typewriters, used then for underlining among other things. (i.e., you type in "Book Title", then backspace the carriage to the B and type in underscores to get "Book Title")

[hnsez]

4. It is older than the computer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underscore

Prior to the advent of word processing, using the underscore character was the only method of underlining words. To produce an underlined word, the word was typed, the typewriter carriage was then moved back to the beginning of the word and the word was overtyped with the underscore character.

[steve2470]

5. Ah, thank all of you !!!! nt

[Robert Oak]

6. learn to use google, no offense

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/u/un/underscore.htm

the riddle solved by another.

He doesn't mention that underscores are also useful to concatenate
long string names. White space is a special ascii character and many scripts ignore white space, you would have to write a special parser to bypass the compiler rules, so variables names won't work like
this is a variable
you have to say this_is_a_variable for the name to be considered one
word.

[steve2470]

13. I understand why you said that, but...

I'm actually one of the better people at using search engines. I usually do use Google when I have a difficult or boring topic to research. This is a *whimsical* post and as such provided, I hope, a few seconds of entertainment to a few folks. If no one had replied (which could have easily happened), I would have gone off and used Google. Also, sometimes I get better answers using the collected intellect here and sometimes others actually learn something useful. This was a whimsical post, so I'm sure educational value was nil here.

[Robert Oak]

16. sorry

didn't realize the post was for "social lubricant". :)

[CornField]

17. "social lubricant"

Ewwww... now I feel all dirty.

[donco6]

7. Goes all the way back to early typesetting.

Expressing language with inflection was always a problem with printed words. Alternate typefaces were terribly expensive, and often weren't compatible with the existing press plates. So they invented the underscore to add emphasis in an inexpensive way.

[steve2470]

8. The below is REALLY what I wanted to know:

It is also often used instead of a space in computer operating systems, file names, and in World Wide Web URLs.

Some computer applications will automatically underline text surrounded by underscores: _underlined_ will render underlined. It is also conventionally used in this fashion on Usenet, an ASCII-only medium, to indicate underlining.\


from the wikipedia article about underscore.

[hnsez]

15. wiki pwns

[Tesha]

9. And, of course...

Later, when programming languages evolved to the point where you could
name things with more than five or six characters but the names still
had to be "one word", computer programmers started using the underscore
as a sort of "virtual space", as in:

o This_is_a_valid_variable_name

o And_so_is_this

o Cause_theyre_all_one_word

Names of this sort are a lot easier to read than the alternatives:

o thisisanamewithoutspaces
o ThisIsAnotherNameWithoutSpaces

Tesha

[steve2470]

10. Thanks ! nt

[Alpharetta]

18. ah, the memories.

Reminds me of why I'm so glad to be out of software.

Ever sat in meetings where naming standards for variables was discussed? Holy cow. Just shoot me.

[patdem]

11. Geeks did not 'invent' it they use it for a space when a space is not

allowed. It is just an underline..that was invented even before typewriters...you know for emphasis...the underline was before bold and italics, even.

[thereismore]

14. that_is_the_truth

[yodermon]

12. I think it was already on typewriters

You could use it to underline stuff by moving the carriage back & typing over other letters.

I think.