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Short variable names are useful when structure is more important than concrete interpretation. For example, consider the above definition of e (aka EulersConstant): e = lim x->inf (1 - 1/x)^x = limit( compoundingSegmentsPerYear, INFINITY, pow(1 - 1 / compoundingSegmentsPerYear, compoundingSegmentsPerYear))

We could obfuscate further by XML replacement parentheses: <sum> <term>1</term> <term> <quotient>...</quotient> </term> </sum> But the structure is more important, right?



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