Naming convention (programming)
From Wiki @ Karl Jones dot com
In computer programming, a naming convention is a set of rules for choosing the character sequence to be used for identifiers which denote variables, types, functions, and other entities in source code and software documentation.
Reasons for using a naming convention (as opposed to allowing programmers to choose any character sequence) include:
- To reduce the effort needed to read and understand source code
- To enable code reviews be able to focus on more important issues than arguing over syntax and naming standards.
- To enable code quality review tools be able to focus their reporting mainly on significant issues other than syntax and style preferences.
- To enhance source code appearance (for example, by disallowing overly long names or unclear abbreviations).
On the difficulty of naming things
There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things.
-- Phil Karlton
This quote (much-repeated-with-variations) may misquoted or mis-attributed. (See TwoHardThings by Martin Fowler.)
Nonetheless, it expresses fundamental truths:
- Naming things is essential to computer programming
- It's hard to do well
- It's easy to feel that you could do better if you worked harder
- Thus your work is never really done
See also
External links
- Naming convention (programming) @ Wikipedia
