Stuart McLachlan
stuart at lexacorp.com.pg
Wed Aug 4 10:20:28 CDT 2004
On 4 Aug 2004 at 13:50, Roz Clarke wrote: > > Has anyone got any thoughts on naming conventions? Any experience of fully > numeric naming systems that they can share? I have the authority to overrule > him but this is a really big project so I want to get it right, and he is > (theoretically) a lot more experienced than I am. He just hasn't come up > with any convincing arguments. > First question, why are you limited to 8 character names? Unless that is a limitation of the DBMS, and I can't think of one today that has such a limit, there is no reason to do so. Numerics Con: Meaningless numeric names are a good method of "job security by obfuscation". They make code maintenance a bastard even for people who are working with the system regularly. They are a total nightmare for anyone who has to come in later and make sense of what was previously developed. Pro: I can't think of anything MeaningfulNames: Pro: Makes code easier to follow, especially if you use one of the commmon conventions such as Leszynski/Reddick Con: I can't think of anything Try googling "naming conventions database" :-) -- Lexacorp Ltd http://www.lexacorp.com.pg Information Technology Consultancy, Software Development,System Support.