Which characters are illegal within a branch name?

&gt; **Possible Duplicates:**  
&gt; [*.h or *.hpp for your class definitions](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/152555/h-or-hpp-for-your-class-definitions)  
&gt; [Correct C++ code file extension? .cc vs .cpp](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1545080/correct-c-code-file-extension-cc-vs-cpp)  

&lt;!-- End of automatically inserted text --&gt;

I used to think that it used to be that:

 * `.h` files are header files for C and C++, and usually only contain declarations.
 * `.c` files are C source code.
 * `.cpp` files are C++ source code (which can also be C source code).

then files like `.hpp`, `.cc`, and `.cxx` came along, and I got totally confused... what&#39;s the difference(s) between those? When do you use the &quot;new&quot; ones?

.c vs .cc vs. .cpp vs .hpp vs .h vs .cxx

What is the naming convention in python community to set names for project folders and subfolders? 

    my-great-python-project
    my_great_python_project 
    myGreatPythonProject 
    MyGreatPythonProject

I find mixed up in the github. 
Appreciate your expert opinion. 

Folder naming convention for python projects

Is &quot;URL slug&quot; a completely arbitrary word? Or does it stand for something? I used the word in a conversation with someone and when they asked me why it&#39;s called that I realized I didn&#39;t know.

I know what it means of course.

The Stack Overflow [tag for `[slug]`](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/slug) currently defines it as:

 &gt; part of a URL that makes it more human readable or SEO-friendly, but without necessarily being required by the web server.

and [WordPress.org defines it](https://wordpress.org/support/article/glossary/#slug) as:

 &gt; A slug is a few words that describe a post or a page. Slugs are usually a URL friendly version of the post title (which has been automatically generated by WordPress), but a slug can be anything you like. Slugs are meant to be used with permalinks as they help describe what the content at the URL is.

So - does the word &quot;slug&quot; in a URL have an actual meaning behind it? What is the etymology or meaning of a URL slug?

What is the etymology of &#39;slug&#39; in a URL?

For the &quot;Hello World&quot; example in [**android.com**][1], the package name is    
`&quot;package com.example.helloandroid;&quot;`

Is there any guideline/standard to name this package? (references would be nice)



  [1]: http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/hello-world.html

Android - Package Name convention

Basically when I have a python file like:

    python-code.py

and use:

    import (python-code)

the interpreter gives me syntax error.

Any ideas on how to fix it? Are dashes illegal in python file names?


Is it ok to use dashes in Python files when trying to import them?

I have a function, parseQuery, that parses a SQL query into an abstract representation of that query.

I&#39;m about to write a function that takes an abstract representation of a query and returns a SQL query string.

What should I call the second function?

What is the opposite of &#39;parse&#39;?

What is the convention for suffixing method names with &quot;Async&quot;? 

Should the &quot;Async&quot; suffix be appended *only* to a method that is declared with the `async` modifier?

    public async Task&lt;bool&gt; ConnectAsync()

Or is it enough that the method just returns `Task&lt;T&gt;` or `Task`?

    public Task&lt;bool&gt; ConnectAsync()


Does the use of the &quot;Async&quot; suffix in a method name depend on whether the &#39;async&#39; modifier is used?

&gt; **Possible Duplicate:**  
&gt; [What&amp;#39;s the use/meaning of the @ character in variable names in C#?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/91817/whats-the-use-meaning-of-the-character-in-variable-names-in-c)  

&lt;!-- End of automatically inserted text --&gt;

I understand that the @ symbol can be used before a string literal to change how the compiler parses the string.  But what does it mean when a variable name is prefixed with the @ symbol?

What does the @ symbol before a variable name mean in C#?

I&#39;m interested in the different kinds of identifier cases, and what people call them. Do you know of any additions to this list, or other alternative names?

* `myIdentifier` : Camel case (e.g. in java variable names)
* `MyIdentifier` : Capital camel case (e.g. in java class names)
* `my_identifier` : Snake case (e.g. in python variable names)
* `my-identifier` : Kebab case (e.g. in racket names)
* `myidentifier` : Flat case (e.g. in java package names)
* `MY_IDENTIFIER` : Upper case (e.g. in C constant names)

What are the different kinds of cases?

Coming up with good, precise names for classes is notoriously difficult. Done right, it makes code more self-documenting and provides a vocabulary for reasoning about code at a higher level of abstraction. 

Classes which implement a particular design pattern might be given a name based on the well known pattern name (e.g. FooFactory, FooFacade), and classes which directly model domain concepts can take their names from the problem domain, but what about other classes? Is there anything like a programmer&#39;s thesaurus that I can turn to when I&#39;m lacking inspiration, and want to avoid using generic class names (like FooHandler, FooProcessor, FooUtils, and FooManager)?


What&#39;s the best approach to naming classes?

Why are we using 

    for (int i = 0 ; i &lt; count ; i++){ }

Why the `i`?

Why not 

    for (int a = 0; a &lt; count; a++){ }

I do it, you do it, everyone does it, but WHY?

*Edit

I found out an old saying about Fortran which is more funny than correct which says &quot;god is real, everything else above is an integer&quot;.

&quot;god&quot; would be a variable name stating with a `g` so it would be in the real domain, while everything else above (excluding h for the joke&#39;s purpose) would be an integer.

It seems that the original saying was in fact: &quot;God is real, unless declared integer&quot;. Apologies to everyone citing me in their Ph.D thesis.


Why are we using i as a counter in loops?

When writing a python module and functions in it, I have some &quot;public&quot; functions that are supposed to be exposed to outsiders, but some other &quot;private&quot; functions that are only supposed to be seen and used locally and internally.

I understand in python there is no absolute private functions. But what is the best, most neat, or most used style to distinguish &quot;public&quot; functions and &quot;private&quot; functions?

I list some of the styles I know:

1. use `__all__` in module file to indicate its &quot;public&quot; functions (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2187583/whats-the-python-all-module-level-variable-for)
2. use underscore at the beginning of name of &quot;private&quot; functions

Is there any other idea or convention that people use?

Thank you very much!


Python &quot;private&quot; function coding convention

Both seem to be used in web development circles, see e.g. &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/wiki/HTML5-Cross-browser-Polyfills&quot;&gt;HTML5 Cross Browser Polyfills&lt;/a&gt;, which says:

&gt; So here we&#39;re collecting all the shims, fallbacks, and polyfills...

Or, there&#39;s the &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/kriskowal/es5-shim/&quot;&gt;es5-shim&lt;/a&gt; project.

In my current project we&#39;re using a number of these, and I want to stick them all in the same directory. So, what should I call this directory---`shims`, or `polyfills`?

What is the difference between a shim and a polyfill?

I try to be grammatically correct in my naming*.  I&#39;ve always used `filename` instead of `fileName`.  The java convention also seems to use this, but FxCop prefers `fileName`.

There&#39;s a [discussion on WikiPedia][1] about it.  The more I read, the more I feel I&#39;m right (which is quite usual! :) ).  Does anyone have a definitive answer or is this merely something subjective?

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Filename#.22File_name.22_vs_.22Filename.22
 \* I just hope there are no grammar errors in this post!

Parameter naming: filename or fileName?

I am trying to set Apache environment variables (for use in PHP) with the `[E=VAR:VAL]` flag on RewriteRule rules in an .htaccess file.

I have already discovered the variables are accessed in PHP as server variables `$_SERVER` rather than `$_ENV` (which makes a certain amount of sense). However, my problem is for some rules the `[E=VAR:VAL]` flag works as expected and I end up with a variable `$_SERVER[&#39;VAR&#39;]` but for other rules I end with a variable `$_SERVER[&#39;REDIRECT_VAR&#39;]` or `$_SERVER[&#39;REDIRECT_REDIRECT_VAR&#39;]`, etc

A. What causes an environment variable set in Apache using the `[E=VAR:VAL]` flag to get renamed by having &quot;REDIRECT_&quot; prepended to the variable name?

B. What can I do to make sure I end up with an Environment Variable with an unchanged name so I can access it in PHP as `$_SERVER[&#39;VAR&#39;]` without having to resort to checking for variations of the variable name having one of more instances of &quot;REDIRECT_&quot; prepended to it?

*Partial solution found*. Adding the following to the start of the rewrite rules recreates the original ENV:VAR on each redirect (as well as leaving the REDIRECT_VAR versions there) if they&#39;re needed:
 
    RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_VAR} !^$
    RewriteRule .* - [E=VAR:%{ENV:REDIRECT_VAR}]



When setting environment variables in Apache RewriteRule directives, what causes the variable name to be prefixed with &quot;REDIRECT_&quot;?

I see many people talking about the term SUT, but do not understand why they use that term.

SUT is what you want to test?

**Where does this term come from and what does it mean?**

For example in this test, what is my SUT?

    [TestMethod]
    public void UsersAction_should_return_IndexAction()
    {
        const long id = 1;
    
        UsersViewModel viewModel = new UsersViewModel()
        {
            SelectedUsers = new long[] { 1, 2, 3, 4 }
        };
    
        ActionResult result = _controller.Users(id, viewModel);
    
        result.AssertActionRedirect().ToAction(&quot;Index&quot;);
    }

What is SUT and where did it come from?

For example in HTTP you send a request and receive a response; is there a noun that describes that request-response pair?

I&#39;d thought of &quot;dialog&quot; or &quot;conversation&quot; however those imply multiple request-response pairs, whereas I&#39;m looking for a word that indicates exactly one.

The reason for asking is that I need to name an object which encapsulates the details of both, and `RequestResponse` seems fairly lame.

What is a request-response pair called?

What is the purpose of naming your constraints (unique, primary key, foreign key)?

Say I have a table which is using natural keys as a primary key:

    CREATE TABLE Order
    (
        LoginName        VARCHAR(50)    NOT NULL,
        ProductName      VARCHAR(50)    NOT NULL,
        NumberOrdered    INT            NOT NULL,
        OrderDateTime    DATETIME       NOT NULL,
        PRIMARY KEY(LoginName, OrderDateTime)
    );

What benefits (if any) does naming my PK bring?

Eg.
Replace:

        PRIMARY KEY(LoginName, OrderDateTime)

With:

        CONSTRAINT Order_PK PRIMARY KEY(LoginName, OrderDateTime)

Sorry if my data model is not the best, I&#39;m new to this!

What is the purpose of constraint naming

From [Building Skills in Python][1]:

&gt; A file name like `exercise_1.py` is better than the name `exercise-1.py`. We can run both programs equally well from the command line, but the name with the hyphen limits our ability to write larger and more sophisticated programs.

Why is this?


  [1]: http://homepage.mac.com/s_lott/books/python/BuildingSkillsinPython.pdf

Why are underscores better than hyphens for file names?

A long time ago I have read an article (I believe a blog entry) which put me on the &quot;right&quot; track on naming objects: Be very very scrupulous about naming things in your program.

For example if my application was (as a typical business app) handling users, companies and addresses I&#39;d have a `User`, a `Company` and an `Address` domain class - and probably somewhere a `UserManager`, a `CompanyManager` and an `AddressManager` would pop up that handles those things.

So can you tell what those `UserManager`, `CompanyManager` and `AddressManager` do? No, because Manager is a very very generic term that fits to anything you can do with your domain objects.

The article I read recommended using very specific names. If it was a C++ application and the `UserManager`&#39;s job was allocating and freeing users from the heap it would not manage the users but guard their birth and death. Hmm, maybe we could call this a `UserShepherd`.

Or maybe the `UserManager`&#39;s job is to examine each User object&#39;s data and sign the data cryptographically. Then we&#39;d have a `UserRecordsClerk`.


Now that this idea stuck with me I try to apply it. And find this simple idea amazingly hard.

I can describe what the classes do and (as long as I don&#39;t slip into quick &amp; dirty coding) the classes I write do exactly **one** thing. What I miss to go from that description to the names is a kind of catalogue of names, a vocabulary that maps the concepts to names.

Ultimately I&#39;d like to have something like a pattern catalogue in my mind (frequently design patterns easily provide the object names, e.g. a _factory_)


- Factory - Creates other objects (naming taken from the design pattern)
- Shepherd - A shepherd handles the lifetime of objects, their creation and shutdown
- Synchronizer - Copies data between two or more objects (or object hierarchies)
- Nanny - Helps objects reach &quot;usable&quot; state after creation - for example by wiring to other objects

- etc etc.


So, how do you handle that issue? Do you have a fixed vocabulary, do you invent new names on the fly or do you consider naming things not-so-important or wrong?


P.S.: I&#39;m also interested in links to articles and blogs discussing the issue. As a start, here is the original article that got me thinking about it: [Naming Java Classes without a &#39;Manager&#39;][1]


----------


## Update: Summary of answers ##

Here&#39;s a little summary of what I learned from this question in the meantime.

 - Try not to create new metaphors (Nanny)
 - Have a look at what other frameworks do

Further articles/books on this topic:

 - [What names do you find yourself prepending/appending to classes regularly?][2] 
 - [What’s the best approach to naming classes?][3]
 - Book: [Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Hardcover)][4]
 - Book: [Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture (Hardcover)][5]
 - Book: [Implementation Patterns (Paperback)][6]


And a current list of name prefixes/suffixes I collected (subjectively!) from the answers:

 - Coordinator
 - Builder
 - Writer
 - Reader
 - Handler
 - Container
 - Protocol
 - Target
 - Converter
 - Controller
 - View
 - Factory
 - Entity
 - Bucket
 

And a good tip for the road:

&gt; Don&#39;t get naming paralysis. Yes, names are very important but they&#39;re not important   enough to waste huge amounts of time on. If you can&#39;t think up a good name in 10 minutes, move on.

  [1]: http://www.bright-green.com/blog/2003_02_25/naming_java_classes_without_a.html
  [2]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1194403/what-names-do-you-find-yourself-prepending-appending-to-classes-regularly
  [3]: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38019/whats-the-best-approach-to-naming-classes
  [4]: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0201633612/
  [5]: http://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Enterprise-Application-Architecture-Martin/dp/0321127420
  [6]: http://www.amazon.com/Implementation-Patterns-Kent-Beck/dp/0321413091

Naming Classes - How to avoid calling everything a &quot;&lt;WhatEver&gt;Manager&quot;?

Which is the correct name for a system which stores versions of source code, like SVN or TFS? 

I&#39;ve always called it source control, but places like Wikipedia calls it revision control?

To make this more complicated sites like this one have a tag for both?

Source control vs. Revision Control?

Why is the Rust programming language called &quot;Rust&quot;?

Is there anything known about who named it, and why? (I am having a hard time coming up with a positive association).

Why is it called &quot;Rust&quot;?

I discovered that you can start your variable name with a &#39;@&#39; character in C#. 
In my C# project I was using a web service (I added a web reference to my project) that was written in Java. One of the interface objects defined in the WSDL had a member variable with the name &quot;params&quot;. Obviously this is a reserved word in C# so you can&#39;t have a class with a member variable with the name &quot;params&quot;. The proxy object that was generated contained a property that looked like this:

    public ArrayList @params {
        get { return this.paramsField; }
        set { this.paramsField = value; }
    }

I searched through the VS 2008 c# documentation but couldn&#39;t find anything about it. Also searching Google didn&#39;t give me any useful answers. So what is the exact meaning or use of the &#39;@&#39; character in a variable/property name?

All Naming Solutions on Gang of Coders

Total of 24 Naming Solutions

Which characters are illegal within a branch name?

.c vs .cc vs. .cpp vs .hpp vs .h vs .cxx

Folder naming convention for python projects

What is the etymology of 'slug' in a URL?

Android - Package Name convention

Is it ok to use dashes in Python files when trying to import them?

What is the opposite of 'parse'?

Does the use of the "Async" suffix in a method name depend on whether the 'async' modifier is used?

What does the @ symbol before a variable name mean in C#?

What are the different kinds of cases?

What's the best approach to naming classes?

Why are we using i as a counter in loops?

Python "private" function coding convention

What is the difference between a shim and a polyfill?

Parameter naming: filename or fileName?

When setting environment variables in Apache RewriteRule directives, what causes the variable name to be prefixed with "REDIRECT_"?

What is SUT and where did it come from?

What is a request-response pair called?

What is the purpose of constraint naming

Why are underscores better than hyphens for file names?

Naming Classes - How to avoid calling everything a "<WhatEver>Manager"?

Source control vs. Revision Control?

Why is it called "Rust"?

What's the use/meaning of the @ character in variable names in C#?