Discussion on: No to Imperative Code! Because Debugging Spaghetti is No Fun

[Maxi Contieri]

IMHO, using abbreviations makes code less readable and less declarative
Even being common in many mainstream languages they are code smells
Again, in my opinion.
to achieve 100% declarativeness, you should stop using abbreviations.
I've used both prolog and JS

[Jon Bristow]

The variable names don't really come into whether it's imperative or declarative.

Abbreviations are a readability issue. I'd agree with you that they're generally less clear in most places except for examples and generics.

[Maxi Contieri]

good names are clean and declarative.
bad names are not imperative, they are just bad

Code Smell 33 - Abbreviations

Maxi Contieri ⭐⭐⭐ ・ Nov 24 '20 ・ 2 min read

#oop #codenewbie #programming #tutorial

[Jon Bristow]

Yes, but the way you’re using the terms “declarative and imperative” is not aligned with the computer science definitions of those words.

Imperative code tells the computer to do something. “Reduce over this list of orders by summing their cost”

Declarative states an axiom or truth. “This value is the result of applying a fold right operation using the function a on x”

[Maxi Contieri]

you are right.
I am abusing the concept.
It is declarative code with bad names

[Bruno Noriller]

I don't agree because it should never be set on stone.

"Max" is pretty descriptive even if you don't use "maximum", inside that scope it's ok. Wouldn't be true if "m" were used.

However, in this example:

const productsIds = products.map(p => p.id)

I would say one letter is the correct choice, since:

const productsIds = products.map(product => product.id)

Having no abbreviations actually hurt how to read and generate just extra clutter.

My rule of thumb is to have the name length inversely proportional to the scope.

A dozens of lines function calls for bigger, descriptive names.
A one liner? Maybe one letter is enough.

[Maxi Contieri]

'My rule of thumb is to have the name length inversely proportional to the scope'

It is fine.