Is there a list of names you should not use in programming?

Question

Is there a list of items on the web that you should not use when creating a model or variable?

For example, if I wanted to create apartment listings, naming a model something like Property would be problematic in the future and also confusing since property is a built-in Python function.

I did try Googling this, but couldn't come up with anything.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Rules and constraints about naming depend on the programming language. How an identifier/name is bound depends on the language semantics and its scoping rules: an identifer/name will be bound to different element depending on the scope. Scoping is usally lexical (i.e. static) but some language have dynamic scoping (some variant of lisp).

If names are different, there is no confusion in scoping. If identifiers/names are reused accrossed scopes, an identifier/name might mask another one. This is referred as Shadowing. This is a source of confusion.

Certain reserved names (i.e. keywords) have special meaning. Such keyword can simply be forbidden as names of other elements, or not.

For instance, in Smallatalk self is a keyword. It is still possible to declare a temporary variable self, though. In the scope where the temporary variable is visible, self resolves to the temporary variable, not the usual self that is receiver of the message.

Of course, shadowing can happen between regular names.

Scoping rules take types into consideration as well, and inheritance might introduce shadows.

Another source of confusion related to binding is Method Overloading. In statically typed languages, which method is executed depends on the static types at the call site. In certain cases, overloading makes it confusing to know which method is selected. Both Shadowing and Overloading should avoided to avoid confusions.

If your goal is to translate Python to Javascript, and vice versa, I guess you need to check the scoping rules and keywords of both languages to make sure your translation is not only syntactically correct, but also semantically correct.

Answer 2

Most words in most natural languages can have different meanings, according to the context. That's why we use specifiers to make the meaning of a word clear. If in any case you think that some particular identifier may be confusing, you can just add a specifier to make it clear. For example ObjectProperty has probably nothing to do with real estate, even in an application that deals with real estate.

The case you present is no different than using generic identifiers with no attached context. For example a variable named limit or length may have completely different meanings in different programs. Just use identifiers that make sense and document their meaning extensively. Being consistent within your own code base would also be preferable. Do not complicate your life with banned term lists that will never be complete and will only make programming more difficult.

The obvious exceptions are words reserved by your programming language of choice - but then again no decent compiler would allow you to use them anyway...

Answer 3

Generally, programming languages have 'reserved words' or 'keywords' that you're either not able to use or in some cases are but should stay away from. For Python, you can find that list here.