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I think or is keyword in c++.
It might be that I’ve been doing too much python code recently but I find or is more readable than || and xor much more readable than ^.
Is it a good idea to use the word alternatives to the symbolic operators?
Why don’t I see them used more?
Completely depends on the target audience for your code – both people and tools. People can be unused to them, and some tools don’t recognize them. (Sometimes those tools use <ciso646> to define them as macros.)
I’ve started to use “and” and “or” more, especially when switching between C++ and Python, and it has been more readable. The bit of extra consistency between languages matters more than I first thought it would, but more importantly, && and || are control structures and not operators (i.e. short-circuiting), thus making them words differentiates from operators.
(Yes, technically they’re operators in C++, but they’re more similar to if, else, return, while, and so forth than +, -, *, and other operators. The comma and conditional operators are similarly control structures, and it probably isn’t a coincidence they are often found confusing, or at least less readable than separate statements and if/else, respectively.)
However, I very rarely use them in new code written for SO, for example, because I’ve not yet encountered a question where bringing up this side issue was more important than being readable to SO’s C++ audience.