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I think in a huge number of cases it is possible to objectively say that a change made the code better. I see those very often when consulting at companies. Ju

I think in a huge number of cases it is possible to objectively say that a change made the code better. I see those very often when consulting at companies. Just to give you an example (which I ran across last week), if you have some code handling a cart in an e-commerce site and you need to keep track of the number of items in this cart would you prefer the variable name "totalAmount" or "quantity". There's also a variable named "totalAmountIncludingTax" which holds the monetary amount to pay for the items in the cart.

mattgreenrocks 6y ago
The accumulation of many small wins in things like naming is often much more helpful than full-on overhauls. But you have to be willing to do the small, seemingly inconsequential things to build up to those.
- amw-zero 6y ago
  How do you know that one name is better than the other? I see renames all the time where I preferred the original version.
  - tuwtuwtuwtuw 6y ago
    If you have a variable representing the length of an array containing user accounts, would you prefer the name "length" or "price"?
    - amw-zero 6y ago
      This isn’t a relevant argument. The fact that you constructed an absurd scenario and there’s a clear winner in it does not imply that there is always a clear winner. In fact, my experience is that in the majority of times there is not a clear winner, and terms get completely overloaded or used imprecisely. So, again, your absurd scenario proves to be quite a weak argument when you consider the scope of the whole problem.
      - tuwtuwtuwtuw 6y ago
        Then I don't think I see the type of meaningless variable renames you are talking about. I do see variable names about as bad as in my example though, and I see them being fixed. They typically arise from some copy/paste where someone wanted similar logic but forgot to rename a variable. I don't see people renaming from say numberOfItems to noOfItems or similar, if that's the type of renames you're referring to. Can you give an example of a rename you are seeing?

mattgreenrocks 6y ago

The accumulation of many small wins in things like naming is often much more helpful than full-on overhauls. But you have to be willing to do the small, seemingly inconsequential things to build up to those.

amw-zero 6y ago
How do you know that one name is better than the other? I see renames all the time where I preferred the original version.
- tuwtuwtuwtuw 6y ago
  If you have a variable representing the length of an array containing user accounts, would you prefer the name "length" or "price"?
  - amw-zero 6y ago
    This isn’t a relevant argument. The fact that you constructed an absurd scenario and there’s a clear winner in it does not imply that there is always a clear winner. In fact, my experience is that in the majority of times there is not a clear winner, and terms get completely overloaded or used imprecisely. So, again, your absurd scenario proves to be quite a weak argument when you consider the scope of the whole problem.
    - tuwtuwtuwtuw 6y ago
      Then I don't think I see the type of meaningless variable renames you are talking about. I do see variable names about as bad as in my example though, and I see them being fixed. They typically arise from some copy/paste where someone wanted similar logic but forgot to rename a variable. I don't see people renaming from say numberOfItems to noOfItems or similar, if that's the type of renames you're referring to. Can you give an example of a rename you are seeing?