Software component names should be whimsical and cryptic

Re:Software component names should be whimsical and cryptic by kogus on Tuesday September 13, 2022 @09:42AM (#32824176)

Reminds me of the classic "how to write unmaintainable code": https://cs.fit.edu/~kgallagher/Schtick/How%20To%20Write%20Un...

Especially this bit:

    Bedazzling Names
    Choose variable names with irrelevant emotional connotation. e.g.:

    marypoppins = (superman + starship) / god; 

    This confuses the reader because they have difficulty disassociating the
    emotional connotations of the words from the logic they're trying to think about.

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Re:Software component names should be whimsical and cryptic by endtime on Tuesday September 13, 2022 @02:46PM (#32828588)

I did this in an infosec class in undergrad 15 years ago, inspired by exactly this essay. The first part of the project was to write a program that password protected a file, and the second part was to try and break each other's programs, with full source code access. I think it helped discourage people from trying to deal with mine as opposed to other people's. (Also, several people correctly guessed that it was mine despite the code being nominally anonymous...)

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Re:Software component names should be whimsical and cryptic by hulitu on Tuesday September 13, 2022 @10:30AM (#32824731)

This thing is gold. But i think that he misunderstood his audience or the audience did not read till this "This essay is a joke! I apologise if anyone took this literally. "

There are a lot of Google and Microsoft programs who implemented his "advice" (i don't use Apple).

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Re:Software component names should be whimsical and cryptic by ajg36 on Wednesday September 14, 2022 @07:23AM (#32835645)

Thank you for sharing that link. I had been looking for that document on and off for at least a decade. Great stuff.

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