Naming Things

Who am I?

• Python Web-Developer
• @lurst on (Twitter|Github)
• http://lumbercoder.com

Who cares?

Developers Developers Developers

Reasons

• Readability
• Maintainability
• Understandability

Problems

• Can't name
• Can't find a name for something
• Too lazy to name

Can't name?

• You don't understand the problem, think about it.
• Talk to someone about it (Rubber duck debugging).

or...

The (function|variable|class|etc..) is doing too much.

So you should...Refactor!

Can't find a name for something?

Use a Thesaurus and look for synonyms of whatever it is that you're doing.

Or a dictionary...

Names to avoid

• No meaning (e.g. do_stuff)
• Same meaning, different places (e.g. display/show/present)
• Relative (e.g. new, old)
• Names that are too big.

Abbreviations?

I already have a crappy name, what should I do?

Thank you!

@lurst