Names can be taken too far as the same variable may have different connotations in one place than another.
Say I am counting how many of something and incrementing variable HowMany as I go along and initialized to zero. Then I want to test if I have any and instead of: if (HowMany > 0) I decide to be cute and depend on the truthiness of HowMany like: if (HowMany) The latter is a tad hard to parse for some people and if it had been named WeHaveAny then the code would sort of make sense: if (WeHaveAny) Somewhere else in the code some other names might make sense and make the program easier to read. So, the obvious solution is to ask the language, like Python, to allow variables that are synonyms. In languages with pointers, this can often be done fairly easily. In some languages with some optimizations, it can be dangerous as some copies of this kind can later be changed to an actual copy when the underlying data changes. So, since at the moment you might not be able to do this: HowMany = 0 alias HowMany WeHaveAny Then if this feature matters to you, you could cautiously write code that declares a second variable and copies either the current value of the first or a Boolean true/false. I am sure many of us (meaning me) have often named a variable and later reconsidered once we saw the role it plays in various parts of the program and had to go back and change everything. As other have noted, it is not a trivial task and really good names often end up being really long names which are also a pain especially when other really long names start with the same characters. Compilers don't care but humans reading the code may give up! Worse, many times the code consists of longer combinations and trying to keep within reasonable (printable) line lengths gets hard. MyHumoungousDictionaryContainingElectionResults[SomeCountyInSomeStateOfTheUS ] = MyHumoungousDictionaryContainingElectionResults[SomeCountyInSomeStateOfTheUS ] + TheOfficialCertifiedVoteCountOfThisRegion -----Original Message----- From: Python-list <python-list-bounces+avigross=verizon....@python.org> On Behalf Of Karsten Hilbert Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2021 2:50 AM Cc: python-list@python.org Subject: Aw: Re: The task is to invent names for things > > I don't know. A mediocre name conveys at least some information, and > > that seems to be better than none. On the other hand it might be > > just enough to lead the reader astray which wouldn't happen with a > > non-sensical name. I was thinking that a nonsensical name might lead readers to go beyond the name when trying to understand code, and would prompt me to improve upon the name upon reading my own code (and having acquired, likely, a better understanding of the concept that's to be named). Karsten -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list