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Comment by nnfy | Hacker News Reader

I will sometimes put off (when I have other tasks) writing a new class for hours because I can't think of a resonably short but descriptive name.

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That's why almost all IDEs have "renaming" a class as a feature.

I'd say roll with whatever name comes first, as you can always change it later. Dwelling too much with it can be a sign of perfectionism.... or procrastination, or ADD.... or just in-experience.

As I got older and had more experience "naming" things stopped being a problem, as I always knew I could change things later on, and trying to be perfect on first shot is futile.

Thinking of programming as an essay that will need some editing/revisions when done, helps a lot.

"I'd say roll with whatever name comes first, as you can always change it later. Dwelling too much with it can be a sign of perfectionism.... or procrastination, or ADD.... or just in-experience."

-- I will take "things i will never do" for a 100 Alex.

And then you end up with the eternal TO-DO. Congratulations.

I was trying to be funny but the point i was making is that "i'll fix this later" just leads to a ton of technical debt that usually doesn't get fixed.

In this one specific example being paralyzed about naming something is silly.

Interesting, I usually give my class a slightly stupid name and figure out a better one once some or all of the behavior is in place.

Yeah, that works for me. A stupid enough name that I'd never check it in will probably be replaced within an hour, as I've gotten to know the class or function better.

Another thing I do sometimes is tricking people into talking about the thing I'm trying to name without giving away that I'm looking for a name. They often just use the natural term I couldn't think of.

Right now, somewhere, some kid having descended several levels of java into a forgotten class is wondering what the hell a SnuffleupagusFactory does...

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