⨳ Let That Be a Lesson to 'Ya! ⨳

2007 Dec 22, Saturday

when i was young and reckless, i would change variable names to something a little more succinct and personally meaningful. i mean, email has a better ring to it than does person_email_address.

the problem with this is when trying to document the variables that your programs use to guestimate how changes to underlying data structures might affect your programs. you called it email here, email_address there, and EmailAddress elsewhere, none of which map to the original name without human intervention.

when you’re working with dozens of databases, each with dozens of tables and hundreds of variables (i’m talking nearly 2,500 variables at the end of the day), such on-the-fly renaming recklessness will end up biting you.

just my $0.02.