> In the world of programming, you get yourself spanked, if you dare to name variables and functions with a single character.

OK, I agree that that paper probably overused the symbols, however, disagree about single char functions! If you’re referring to style, not all programmers follow this style. For example, “PikeStyle” http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/pikestyle — the argument is that it makes code easier to read. The trick is to know when to use a one character variable, and when to not :-)