Outside of the for loop counters i and j, short variable names are awful. Coming back to old code written with abr var nams is like talking to someone in the military who just constantly throws out jargon and acronyms that they know you don't know.

But so are Java style ObserverFactoryManagerTemplateMachinistTemplater names.

There's a sweet middle ground of short, but actually descriptive name. Sometimes it's not possible but that's usually a code organization / language / framework smell.

Too short variable names is usually a sign that you need to use a proper ide, with auto complete, or that you need to use a proper build process that will minify your code after the fact.

Too long names are usually a sign that your module of code (function, class, namespace, etc) is too large, or that your language/framework naming conventions are too strict, or the language doesn't encapsulate scope properly.

[–] marcos@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

The length of variable and function names should be proportional to the size of the code that can potentially call them. And preferably segmented in namespaces, explicit modules, or something like that.

[–] red_tomato@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

Outside of the for loop counters i and j, short variable names are awful.

I’ve started to prefer writing it out as ”index” or ”iteration” even in for loop counters. It’s easier to read, and not much harder to type.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Keeping things that can be on one line to one line is a good reason to use short variable names where it won't be confusing. Writing "iteration" sounds absolutely perverse!

The thing is, everyone understands i and j. The reason calling variables hcv or iid is dumb is because noone knows what that means - quite a different situation.

[–] red_tomato@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Writing “iteration” sounds absolutely perverse!

I like it to make it clear when the for loop is about iterating lists and when it’s not. For example, the iterations in Monte Carlo algorithms doesn’t correspond to items in a list.

[–] silasmariner@programming.dev 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

idx is the ideal name for an index, change my mind

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yh, y cn sv a lt f spc wtht ths unncssr vwls

[–] silasmariner@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I is a vowel too but you sure can!

Edit: also I noticed you dropped one 'y' but not the others. Is this an accident or some subtlety to do with y's 'semi-vowel' status? To be discussed.

[–] luciferofastora@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago

t's prbbl t kp wrds rcgnzbl. Hw ls wld knw wht h s sppsd t b?

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

I had to leave most of first letters, and sometimes if all vowels are removed there's nothing left

But yeah, we need a committee and come up with a standard for that

[–] Dhs92@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago

I think even idx is better than just i. I feel like just i can visually get lost

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago

I typically do too, or userIndex or something for nested loops, but I will accept i and j for the first two levels of nesting when reviewing a PR because they're such a convention. I wouldn't accept variable names like that anywhere else though and try and avoid them myself.