On Monday 13 June 2005 03:59 am, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> Are there any useful naming conventions for modules, classes and functions?
>
> For instance, should I name functions as verbs and classes as nouns?
Hmm. Okay, here's a few I use:
Classes are generally: Capitalized or CapWords and I use nouns.
Unless it's a "mix-in" in which case, I use adjectives. This mirrors
usage in the Zope sources, BTW.
Method names are either: funkyCaps (Zope uses this) or
lower_case_with_underscores.
I use verb names for methods and functions with very few exceptions.
I use nouns or occasionally adjectives for attributes.
Constants or enumeration values are ALLCAPS or ALL_CAPS, and
usually I define them within a namespace with a descriptive, all lower
case name (a trivial class). The enumeration is usually abbreviated,
but would be an adjective, e.g.:
color.RED
I use *plural* names for lists and tuples, but singular names for
mappings. This is so that I can use the singular in the loop:
for book in books:
pass
But I use single character variables in list comprehensions (and
generators, except I haven't used them yet):
late_books = [b for b in books if b.duedate < datetime.now()]
I also use single-character names in highly mathematical code:
def dot_product(a,b):
return a.x*b.x + a.y*b.y + a.z*b.z
But if a variable is going to be used more than about 20 lines
away from where it is defined, I use a descriptive word instead.
I like to use Capital or CapWords for modules, too, although I'm
beginning to wonder about that practice.
I really hate redundancy like this:
Topic.create_topic()
and usually prefer:
Topic.create()
which of course means, I have to qualify things a lot in my code.
This has never been an issue, but if it did, I would just introduce
an intermediary like this ("_" for "."):
Topic_create = Topic.create
After that, it's kind of case-by-case. Do read PEP 8, too, of
course.
--
Terry Hancock ( hancock at anansispaceworks.com )
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.anansispaceworks.com
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