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Name before type: why 'age int' is better than 'int age'
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this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2026
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Maybe, but i speak English that follows adjective - noun pattern. So I'm already conditioned to type - name
My language does that, as well as English in which I am fluent. I still find type-first to be impractical.
Also when you write the code, you are usually looking to create a variable, so maybe you type "var" or "const", right, then you have a contextual name in mind, maybe
salary. Then you can make a decision, which type it should be. Maybe "whole dollars"? "Dollars in a decimal number"? Or it could be a complex type in other contexts.That's how I prefer to write code. ๐
Maybe it makes more sense to someone who knows more than one language as well, e.g. languages that use a noun-adjective structure, like French, or Farsi. I don't know. But for me it's not about language, it's about practicality. Findability and writability, if those can be considered words, lol.
My main language is french, and yet i prefer the type-name order. Maybe its because i first learned C, but i guess its also because it goes from general to particular, whereas name-type feels like going backward (being detailed with name, then vague with type, then more detailed with value assignment). Anyway, i guess you're right, it's probably not a lot about language.
Exactly, first language (spoken or programming) doesn't seem to play a role. It's more about the mental model. ๐