Clean Code Chapter 2 Notes

Clean Code

Chapter 2

Variables, functions and classes are used everywhere, they must have meaningful names
Meaningful names should be descriptive and intentive
- Why does it exist
- What it does
- How's it used
- Variable names should not require comments
- Ties into the concept of clean code, when you read code you should already understand what it does
Distinct styles of naming
- Styles such as upper case for constants, or using nouns/verbs for classes/functions
```
const PI = 3.14
function executesAllTasksInOrder(listOfTasks) { ... }
class Animal { ... }
```
- Variable names shouldn't be similar meaning wise or syntactically to other names
  - Don't use 'fetch' and 'retrieve', just pick one and stay consistent
- Pronouncable names helps us to understand the code, remember it more effectively and explain it to others
  - Unreasonably long names should be avoided if possible
  - Select a descriptive variable as simple as possible
Names should be searchable, should be decent length and avoid as many keywords from the language
Everyone's experienced looking for a specific part of code in a large file using the search functions but a lot of search results appear
- Names containing 'array', 'list'
- Names containing digits
- Single letter names such as i
Our audience are still programmers, so we can still use technical terms in names which is a more familiar language
- Even though the variable name i is not considered a good name, if it's used in a loop then programmers will understand it because its a traditional convention
Learning how to choose good names comes from experience
- Take feedback when other people review your code
- When reading other people's code, consider what areas are vague and could be more descriptive