Re: Long Constant Names

[Steve Richter <stephenrichter@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 11:24:52 +0100, antoine.contal@xxxxxxx
<antoine.contal@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi group,
> 
> I'm having an argument with the team that choose our shop's coding style 
> conventions. I'd like to have your opinion on the subject.
> 
> The heart of the matter lies in this kind of constant declaration:
> 
> DwwAppStateUpdFailMsg...
> D                 C                   '...'
> 
> (ww is a prefix we have to add in front of variables and constants, to 
> differentiate them from file fields)
> 
> The convention team says this name is too long. They want everybody to keep 
> their names within the 15-character limit -- indeed, 13 meaningful characters 
> after you add the two-character prefix.
> 
> I think this name is already on the short side. Using so many abbreviations 
> won't make newcomers' work any easier. Still, isn't it more readable than 
> wwASUFM for instance?
> 
> Did anyone already have this argument? What were the decisive factors and 
> what did you choose in the end?

long name.  I try to organize the long name to make it meaningful
within the application as a whole.

all constants start with "con"

use a "_" character to group sets of constants.  kind of the
equivalent of the enum in c++:
    conItStat_Open
    conItStat_Closed
    conItStat_Ready

where "con" means constant
"itstat" is a field name in the database
what follows the "_" are the meaningful names of each permitted value
for that field.

-Steve