The Way of the Web Tester

Step 2: Choose Good Names

Looking at the class code again, one thing that makes this code harder to read is that the variable names are short—like m for meter or r for report.

def print(m) # m = meter
r << "Type: Gas\n" # r = report

There’s nothing wrong with short variable names themselves. But when they hide or make the intent of the code harder to read, that’s usually a sign that we want to change them.

Let’s go ahead and expand those names and use whole words to better describe what they represent. Tweaking the names a bit, here’s what we have now:

class MeterPrinter

  def print(meter)

    report = StringIO.new

    case meter.type
      when 'gas'
        report << "Meter Report\n"
        report << "Type: Gas\n"