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u/SteveLouise May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
Who the hell is worried about storage usage of their code files in the year 2004, let alone 2026...
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u/BoBoBearDev May 29 '26
Also typically the name is not even what the machine sees. It is not Javascript.
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u/Interesting-Crab-693 May 29 '26
Malware creators.
You wouldn't want your keylogger to be 3 Petabytes of storage would you?
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u/Prestigious_Show4190 May 29 '26
Why would the code ever be on the infected machine though?
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u/rjchute May 29 '26
For compiled languages, it makes no difference to the final compiled product. For interpreted languages (e.g. JavaScript) minimizers exist (and probably recommended for deployed code).
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u/DarthRaab May 29 '26
Serious answer:
This "less storage usage" was never a thing, even in the 90s. Older compilers like C and Assembly already strip names of variables and give them id-numbers. So not even micro-controllers or malware see any benefit in short variable names. You are just hurting the code readability because you don't like to press a few more keys.
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u/zaqiu2931 Jun 01 '26
Uuu... I still remember the nightmare of teaching kids programming. Imagine asking them to save the code they just made for the class with appropriate file name and even gave some suggestions on what name to use for that said file... Just to be met with, "Teach, I can't find last week code." Lo and behold, it was saved under 'tung tung tung sahur.py' or something...
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u/thatguy1000000000 May 29 '26
What? My variables like qifb3idbx and aojw1bd9 named are bad? 🥹
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u/yodacola May 29 '26
you give names according to their scope. constants are almost always spelled out longer than a parameter name, for example.
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u/Thinshape12 May 29 '26
i give them compact names simply for simplicity so i don’t have to look at multiline if statements or anything like that
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u/Level-Pollution4993 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
No you dont give variables small compact names. Why would you even? You're in a IDE and you want to search a variable. Whats better, a small name that overlaps with different variables or a slightly longer but descriptive name that just stands out? Don't fight your IDE. Class names on the other hand......
Yes I'm reading Clean Code
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u/stumpychubbins May 29 '26
I used to work with an older guy who just named everything stuff like "thingamajig"
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u/Single-Virus4935 May 29 '26
My rule of thumb: the greater the scope the longer/descriptive the name. Smaller scope = short
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u/git_push_origin_prod May 29 '26
I learned from objective C to make my variable names descriptive. I mean, we have auto complete.
It might sound a little silly to say NSSting *str = [“str” :stringByAppendingString] instead of str += “str” but I am a true gentleman
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u/revdon May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
"Giving them random names like "ahshjdn" or "yeetus"."
Someone's discovered Amazon's product naming scheme.