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	<title>Hendrik Beck &#187; programming</title>
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	<description>Tech Startup Craftsmanship</description>
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		<title>My 5 reasons not to use short variable names anymore</title>
		<link>http://blog.hendrikbeck.com/2010/08/03/my-5-reasons-not-to-use-short-variable-names-anymore/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=my-5-reasons-not-to-use-short-variable-names-anymore</link>
		<comments>http://blog.hendrikbeck.com/2010/08/03/my-5-reasons-not-to-use-short-variable-names-anymore/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 03 Aug 2010 05:28:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Hendrik Beck]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Allgemein]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coding standards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[programming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[quality]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Every other day I stumble upon lines like that reviewing code: sysMgrH = vFgrMan or parse1(l, e, arr); parse2(l2, e2, arr); Please don&#8217;t do that anymore! Choose long and clear variable names, nothing else! Why? It&#8217;s actually allowed to have variable names longer than 1, even longer than 10 characters, if you need that. Your [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Every other day I stumble upon lines like that reviewing code:</p>
<pre>sysMgrH = vFgrMan</pre>
<p>or</p>
<pre>parse1(l, e, arr);
parse2(l2, e2, arr);</pre>
<p>Please don&#8217;t do that anymore! Choose long and clear variable names, nothing else! Why?</p>
<ol>
<li>It&#8217;s actually allowed to have variable names longer than 1, even longer than 10 characters, if you need that.</li>
<li>Your job is not about saving a couple of keyboard hits or 30 seconds of time, it&#8217;s about producing something of high quality. And something maintainable. And sustainable.</li>
<li>Actually writing out the code is only 1% of your time compared to the rest, like e.g. thinking about what you should write. You can as well spend a few seconds more on the writing part.</li>
<li>If you worry about having to write the same 12-characters variable name over and over again: make friends with Ctrl+Space.</li>
<li>But the actual reason, my personal #1 reason, is the following: you don&#8217;t write that piece of code for yourself and for right now. It will be existing for the next 5 or 10 years and if you&#8217;re lucky dozens of developers will see it. And some of them have to understand it. In 2 months, in a year, in 5 years. But for them it&#8217;s not a matter of 30 seconds (that&#8217;s the time you saved 5 years ago, remember?), for them it can easily become a matter of hours. Keep in mind that on average more than 50% of software development costs are spent after the initial version is finished.</li>
</ol>
<p>So here is my appeal: be nice and write your code as if you&#8217;d write a novel. Choose nice words, choose long words, and format everything nicely. Think of your fellow developer in the future who will thank you for that.</p>
<ol></ol>
<p>Also, be aware of <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2004/03/the_worlds_two_worst_variable.html">The world&#8217;s two worst variable names</a> by Andy Lester.</p>
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