“Good names – for classes, functions and variables alike – are a simple but powerful way of creating understandable code. Understandable code gives you improved maintainability. Bad names on the other hand are a heavy burden that the whole development team has to carry. Bad names hide the authors intent, leave false clues and often obscure the meaning of code. And all this calls for a certain action that developers should never have to apply lightly: The Batman Mode™. Forced into detailed detective work, developers try to find the meaning and correct pronunciation of class names like GyqfaChBppResDao. They investigate the difference between intended and entrenched meaning of variable names like ssd, sd and cd. They argue with code-villains about Encodings, Hungarian Notation and if an interface name should start with an I or not. Putting a little bit of extra care into name choices and following some simple concepts such as the “Scope Rule” and “Newspaper Metaphor” can have huge positive effects on your code. By choosing Supernames™ your team might even prevent the Dawn of Legacy Code for its own project!
You can find the original presentation slides here: http://batman-v-supername.kimminich.de
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