Perl Style: On the Naming of Names (Form)

  • `I eschew embedded capital letters in names; to my prose-oriented eyes, they are too awkward to read comfortably. They jangle like bad typography.’ (Rob Pike)

  • `IEschewEmbeddedCapitalLettersInNames ToMyProseOrientedEyes TheyAreTooAwkwardToReadComfortably TheyJangleLikeBadTypography.’ (TheAntiPike)

  • While short identifiers like $gotit are probably ok, use underscores to separate words. It is generally easier to read $var_names_like_this than $VarNamesLikeThis, especially for non-native speakers of English. It’s also a simple rule that works consistently with VAR_NAMES_LIKE_THIS.

  • You may find it helpful to use letter case to indicate the scope or nature of a variable. For example:

       $ALL_CAPS_HERE   constants only (beware clashes with perl vars!)
       $Some_Caps_Here  package-wide global/static
       $no_caps_here    function scope my() or local() variables
    
  • Function and method names seem to work best as all lowercase. E.g., $obj->as_string().


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