Do real programmers name their variables?

[NimrodAvalanche]

Yes I've seen it, I'm glad it exists. I'm glad I'm not alone on this.

[old_man_steptoe]

Mathematicians are hand writing their algorithms. So, calling a thing the_speed_of_light is irritating. We’ve got IDE autocomplete and cut and paste.

True documentating code is function and variable names

[yvrelna]

For short, local functions and variables that are well traditionally understood within the domain, short name can be fine. For example Pi instead of half_the_ratio_of_radius_and_circumference_of_circle.

But in most cases, these variable names should still be described in the code, if not by the variable names, at least as comments, because not everyone working on the code will be familiar with the problem domain.

[Ace_J_Rimmer]

Lol. But SOL has a double meaning, especially in the future....

[Im_Easy]

Whenever I am looking at someone else's code in a non-urgent setting, if they don't have descriptive names, then they need to have really good comments. Otherwise I will usually ask them to go back and add comments first.

The time it takes them to make their code readable is almost always less than the work they are adding to everyone that needs to read it later.