This thin book, if read by software engineers, and taken to heart, would improve code quality everywhere. Just naming things properly is an incredible way to write correct code in the first place, or improve it when you find problems.
And it really is the hardest problem in software engineering - it's so hard to even name things at all that coders will do things they know are wrong to avoid it: long long methods with all code inline, class names that are just some noun with "Manager" or "Factory" or "Processor" or "Action" tacked on to the end as if that was sufficient to let you know what was going on, throwaway names that don't describe the entity named, not changing test names to reflect changes in the test (many times the test name doesn't even accurately state what the test is testing!), etc. etc.
Yet I have found over and over that naming things properly - and breaking things out and giving them a name - contributes significantly to correctness.
The most obvious way is that a correct name breaks the connection between one section of code and another section - especially if that other section would be embedded in the first one if you didn't break it out to give it a name.
* You start with the named thing: you read the name, understand what it is supposed to do, then you read the code there, locally, and decide if it does what the name says it does.
* Now you go back to where the name is used - you know the name accurately describes what's going to happen so you can consider it's use right there without referring again to the code behind it.
Another way proper naming works well is if you name things in such a way that uses of the name in conditionals makes everything simpler.
* This is why in code reviews I constantly point out that expressions used in conditionals should be:
* Broken out into a named predicate (even if only a local Predicate - maybe especially then)
* And that the predicate name should be positive
* Because IMO it leads to much easier to understand boolean-valued expressions
In 30 short pages this book lists the rules you need to follow to name things properly. And you've probably heard each on of rules principles before, one at a time. The value of the book is that these rules are organized into 4 principles and explained together in a way that it all hangs together, and then the principles - and many of the rules - stick in you mind, where you can have them ready when you need to name something.
There's another 30 pages on how to apply the principles/rules in various settings.
$10 on Kindle and well worth it. Even pay the extra $5 and get it in paperback - it's small and thin and very easy to flip through to refresh your understanding with.
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- BlackmagicReviewed in Germany on August 3, 2023
Simple book which is quite helpful.
