CleanCode episode 2 on names

CleanCode episode 2 on names.md

Names

The name that you use should reveal your intent

• comments are a smell of a badly chosen name!
• Only choose names that communicate your intent

Use pronounceable names

Avoid disinformation

• Make sure that a name says what it means, and means what it says
• When you have to read the code to understand what a name (of a method or a variable) mean, the name that you chose is bad

When naming, avoid special encodings

• Avoid special encodings in naming your variables (es: IAccount instead of Account), just use names

Choosing names for classes and functions

When naming things remember:

• Classes and variables are nouns (or noun phrases),
• Methods are verbs (or verb phrases)
• Avoid "Manager", "Data", "Info", "Data", "Handler"
• Methods returning a boolean should be named like "IsXXX"

The Scope Length Rule

• the longer the scope of the variable, the longer the name of the variable
• variable with short tiny scope should have very short name (even a single letter)
• the longer the scope of the method or class, the shorter the name of the variable
• i.e. private methods should have long intention-revealing and descriptive names
• functions that are called from many places should have short and convenient names
• public classes (with long scope) should have short convenient names
• private classes with limited visibility (with short scope) should have long names
• be careful: derived classes may have long names, longer that its parent class, since it may have more adjectives added