>I agree with reasoning, but I have a slightly different methodology
I actually have my own methodology; I just failed to follow it. I
personally find type abbreviations to be difficult to read and
interpret quickly. For generic variables I usually just prefix "the",
ie. thefile, thefolder, thename, etc. I never use "the" for a table
or cursor field, so this ordinarily prevents the kind of problem I
experienced yesterday.
Unfortunately, I had copied some old one-off code for this project in
order to try to save some time. I need to remember that a lack of
rigor will always eventually bite me.
>Personally I am not a fan of the "M." prefix and find it unnecessary.
A member of the VFP Team (I can't remember his name; he was the guy
who "took out the slow parts" from various subsystems for VFP 8 and
9) wrote a blog article explaining that without the M. prefix, the
system MUST compare every variable referenced to every field in the
current work area every time the variable is accessed to determine
whether the variable is a field name. He said that if the current
work area contains a large number of fields, and the same variable is
used over a large number of iterations in a tight loop, using the M.
prefix makes a considerable difference in speed. He showed test
results to demonstrate this.
I do a LOT of array iteration. So I began using the M. prefix for
variables inside high-iteration tight loops. I noticed a slight speed increase.
However, I find the M. prefix ugly and distracting. I used it
yesterday as a quick fix to demonstrate what the problem was. I will
probably eventually rename the variable.
Ken