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A quick tip for better variable names
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this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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That seems akin to commenting. The problem with this approach is that text is not code. It's very easy to forget to change text. In that case it becomes the worst of both worlds, you have a variable name that actually misleads you.
Much safer than this is to encode this kind of information into the code itself in such a way the program won't compile of the types are incorrect.
I understand what you mean, and I even agree with it, but just to be a little pedantic, variable names are code, or at least they are more code than comments or docs.
But yes, encoding units into the type system is a much better solution. It doesn't work however for config options, environment variables or CLI switches.