Re: Warning: Religious naming convention discussion :-) [was: assign help!!]

["John G. Volan" <johnvolan@sprintmail.com>]

Robert Dewar wrote:
> The trouble is that in choosing a name, we are trying to satisfy two
> needs at the same time.
>
>   o  Give maximum help to someone looking at the sources for the
>      first time who does not know their way around.
>
>   o  Don't generate too much unnecessary noise for someone who *does*
>      know their way around the sources.

There is also:

    o  Give the original author a semantic framework that he can hang
       his concepts on, clear the cobwebs out of his own thinking,
       and actually write the code he intends to write without losing
       track of what he's doing with what...

W. Wesley Groleau (Wes) wrote:
> 
> The trouble with "letting rules substitute for judgment" is that you
> end up generating unnecessary noise for _both_ groups but not giving
> much help to either!

This is misguided.  There should be no need to waste energy on
"judgment" regarding aspects of software development that ought to be
_purely mechanical_. For example, once a software designer has
identified the concepts (object classes) that make up an application,
generating names for the program elements that implement those concepts
should be automatic, and not require any "judgement."  The engineer's
"judging" faculties are better spent on more important issues, such as
actually implementing the data structures and algorithms that are to be
affixed to these names.

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