Perl Style: On the Naming of Names (Form)

Jan 1, 1998 by Tom Christiansen

• `I eschew embedded capital letters in names; to my prose-oriented eyes, they are too awkward to read comfortably. They jangle like bad typography.’ (Rob Pike)

• `IEschewEmbeddedCapitalLettersInNames ToMyProseOrientedEyes TheyAreTooAwkwardToReadComfortably TheyJangleLikeBadTypography.’ (TheAntiPike)

• While short identifiers like $gotit are probably ok, use underscores to separate words. It is generally easier to read $var_names_like_this than $VarNamesLikeThis, especially for non-native speakers of English. It’s also a simple rule that works consistently with VAR_NAMES_LIKE_THIS.

• You may find it helpful to use letter case to indicate the scope or nature of a variable. For example:

     $ALL_CAPS_HERE   constants only (beware clashes with perl vars!)
     $Some_Caps_Here  package-wide global/static
     $no_caps_here    function scope my() or local() variables
  

• Function and method names seem to work best as all lowercase. E.g., $obj->as_string().

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Copyright © 1998, Tom Christiansen All rights reserved.