[Zope-Coders] Re: [Zope-Checkins] CVS: Zope/lib/python/ZODB - FileStorage.py:1.98.2.1

[Ken Manheimer]

On Thu, 7 Nov 2002, Toby Dickenson wrote:

> On Thursday 07 November 2002 1:27 pm, Guido van Rossum wrote:

> > But picking George Bailey as a name would be unique in
> > that its name is a cultural reference rather than a reference to the
> > meaning.
> 
> I agree its not the best name to have chosen, but I dont see it is 
> sufficiently broken to change.

I do.  Naming is increasingly important the larger and more
sophisticated a system is.  There are myriad details to track, and
even developers with phenomenal memory cannot sort out an arbitrary
system by rote - names provide substantial cues so the programmer need
*not* remember everything arbitrarily!  As someone who does not have a
phenomenal memory, i feel strongly that good, orienting names are very
important.  As someone sensitive to those newly getting acquainted
with a system, i feel even more strongly that obscure cuteness is bad
- it can make the system seem unnecessarily obscure and unapproachable.  
"George Bailey" is obscure cuteness.  (Maybe as bad as "UntextIndex",
but in a different way.)

-- 
Ken
klm@zope.com