4 ms·

since there are two kinds of size (size | size_), i wonder if longer, more explicit, names would have helped prevent this bug.

recursive 15y ago
size_ is an amazingly terrible variable name, especially in a scope that also contains size. It's a little bit surprising to me that an open source project with node's visibility has code written that way.
- javajosh 15y ago
  What an odd belief, that quality of variable name selection scales with open-source project visibility! I would have thought it would scale with the judgement of active committers. Another odd belief is that criticizing a variable name that occurs fairly deep in the bowels of an open-source project that you are not actively involved with would carry any weight. Do you know what the code conventions are around this project? Whether the underscore has some agreed-upon significance? It's not that I'm against griping, I'm just against griping without sufficient context. It doesn't add to the conversation.
  - recursive 15y ago
    No, I do not know what the conventions are. But I do think that it's either a bad name or a bad convention. I submit as evidence that this mistake was made. I'm not always a good judge of what adds to a conversation, but here's another attempt: Projects that have good naming conventions are likely to have fewer bugs.
  - bri3d 15y ago
    I think the grandparent's gripe is both valid and contributes to the conversation: it helps remind us that when people without institutional knowledge are encouraged to get up to speed and contribute to a project (i.e. the whole idea of "community open source"), verbose and logical variable names are valuable. Asserting that size_ is always an objectively terrible name is difficult, as yes, there might be some sort of convention around underscores. However, I have trouble disputing that verbose, plain-English, logical variable names help enhance code quality and reduce barriers to contribution. I'd certainly feel much more comfortable getting up to speed with and contributing to a code base which used more verbose and logical names than say, size_.
    - aaronblohowiak 15y ago
      > I have trouble disputing that verbose, plain-English, logical variable names help enhance code quality and reduce barriers to contribution This was the entirety of my point, but said more articulately.

recursive 15y ago

size_ is an amazingly terrible variable name, especially in a scope that also contains size. It's a little bit surprising to me that an open source project with node's visibility has code written that way.

javajosh 15y ago
What an odd belief, that quality of variable name selection scales with open-source project visibility! I would have thought it would scale with the judgement of active committers. Another odd belief is that criticizing a variable name that occurs fairly deep in the bowels of an open-source project that you are not actively involved with would carry any weight. Do you know what the code conventions are around this project? Whether the underscore has some agreed-upon significance? It's not that I'm against griping, I'm just against griping without sufficient context. It doesn't add to the conversation.
- recursive 15y ago
  No, I do not know what the conventions are. But I do think that it's either a bad name or a bad convention. I submit as evidence that this mistake was made. I'm not always a good judge of what adds to a conversation, but here's another attempt: Projects that have good naming conventions are likely to have fewer bugs.
- bri3d 15y ago
  I think the grandparent's gripe is both valid and contributes to the conversation: it helps remind us that when people without institutional knowledge are encouraged to get up to speed and contribute to a project (i.e. the whole idea of "community open source"), verbose and logical variable names are valuable. Asserting that size_ is always an objectively terrible name is difficult, as yes, there might be some sort of convention around underscores. However, I have trouble disputing that verbose, plain-English, logical variable names help enhance code quality and reduce barriers to contribution. I'd certainly feel much more comfortable getting up to speed with and contributing to a code base which used more verbose and logical names than say, size_.
  - aaronblohowiak 15y ago
    > I have trouble disputing that verbose, plain-English, logical variable names help enhance code quality and reduce barriers to contribution This was the entirety of my point, but said more articulately.