Why shouldn't I prefix my fields?

I like the underbar prefix for member fields. Mostly I like it because that way, all of my member fields are shown alphabetically before my methods in the wizard bar at the top of the screen.

When you should:

• When your project coding guidelines say you should

When you shouldn't:

• When your project coding guidelines say you shouldn't

If you don't have any guidelines yet, you're free to choose whatever you or your team want and feel most comfortable with. Personally when coding C++ I tend to use m_ for members, it does help. When coding in other languages, particularly those without true classes (like Javascript, Lua) I don't.

In short I don't believe there is a "right" and a "wrong" way.

The auto-implemented property feature in C# 3.0 creates less of a need for this convention one way or the other. Instead of writing

string m_name;
public string Name { get { return m_name; } }

or

string _Name;
public string Name { get { return _Name; } }

(or any other convention), you can now write

public string Name { get; private set; }

Since you no longer need the explicit backing store variable, you no longer have to come up with a name for it; thus avoiding this entire discussion.

Obviously, this argument doesn't apply when you really need explicit backing store such as to perform validation.