A Short Guide to Naming

Foreword

Introduction: What This Book Assumes

1. The Foundation We Build Upon
2. So why should we consider naming?

What is the Point?

1. Arguing Against Naming Skill
2. Does it Actually Matter?
3. Features of Good Names

Readability as a Matter of Familiarity

1. The Relationship Nature of Readability
2. The Team as the Audience
3. Profitable vs. Unprofitable Struggle
4. Building Shared Familiarity
5. Practical Guidelines

Context Creates Clarity

1. The Hierarchical Nature of Code
2. What is the domain name associated with this concept?
3. Windshield Naming
4. Unnecessary Context
5. The Context Hierarchy
6. The Variable Name Sweet Spot
7. Domain Context: Speaking the Language
8. Process Context: Understanding the Flow
9. Mathy or Prosey?
10. When to Use Minimal Names
11. When Context Is Mixed
12. Practical Guidelines for Context-Aware Naming

Length of Names

1. The Factors To Consider
2. So, No Single-Letter Identifiers?
3. @ A name carries meaning

@@ Redundant Context Carries No Meaning

1. Primacy
2. Programming Nicknames

Rules of Thumb

Extraction and Naming - Two Sides of the Same Coin

1. The Dual Nature of Code Organization
2. Paragraph markers
3. Naming Complex Expressions
4. When Functions Aren’t Enough: Extracting Classes
5. Cohesion: The Principle Behind Good Extraction
6. The Naming-Extraction Feedback Loop
7. Practical Guidelines for Extraction and Naming

Nouns And Verbs

1. The Nouns
2. The Verbs
3. Other Parts Of Speech
4. Frameworks

Rules of Thumb

Incrementalism

1. Naming is a Process
2. Intentionally Bad Names
3. Obviously Temporary Names
4. Renaming Safely
5. Caveats
6. The Art of Incremental Improvement

Conclusion

1. Key Takeaways
2. The Naming Checklist
3. Moving Forward
4. Further Reading