Consistent Consideration of Naming Consistency

Naming is essential for code quality and code comprehension. Essentially names are the glue, that helps programmers to associate program elements with the concepts in mind. Program elements, representing real entities, should be named after those (e.g. FlightSchedule, ParkingTicket, AnnualNetProfit). For program structures, that arise for technical reasons, names are chosen according to corresponding structures in reality (e.g. Observer, Factory). Therefore programmers are shaping code and names to fit their concepts. Although the practical relevance of good naming is obvious, it is hard to create a theory of it. We can’t compare the code directly with the concepts, as we don’t have direct access to the developer’s mind. As a substitute we analyse the lexical structure of the names in the code. Based on this, we create hypotheses about the underlying conceptual structure.