Code Smell 33 - Abbreviations

Maxi Contieri - Nov 24 '20 - - Dev Community

Abbreviating is very important so that we look smart and save memory and mind space.

Problems

  • Coupling

  • Bad Naming

  • Declarativeness

  • Ambiguity

  • Readability

  • Premature Optimization

Solutions

  1. Use meaningful/declarative names

Examples

  • Variable naming

  • Function naming

  • Package naming

  • Class naming

Sample Code

Wrong

Right

Detection

We can't automate choosing what is a short name and a declarative.

Some "modern" and shinny languages enforce this bad practice. So we should wisely choose a good language instead.

Tags

  • Declarative

Conclusion

Computer science was born from the mother of science (mathematics). In math, the assignment of single letter variables (i, j, x, y) is a good practice.

The concept of reference arose from the variable.

Many people wondered why mathematicians can work with such short variables, and computer scientists cannot.

For mathematicians, once entered into a formula, variables lose all semantics and become indistinguishable.

We need to care more about semantics and reading.

Our brain wastes a lot of energy figuring out what is the meaning of an abbreviation.

It is 2020, We need to write software for humans, not for compilers.

Relations

More info

Good Names

Credits

Photo by Jessica Knowlden on Unsplash


A long descriptive name is better than a short enigmatic name. A long descriptive name is better than a long descriptive comment.

Robert Martin

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