How do you consistently name things?

There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things. -- Phil Karlton

Plenty of opinions abound on style, naming conventions, formatting, etc.

But there is one principle I try to follow when naming things -- go from general to specific. Example:

• UserEmailAddress

For functions, you may have a module that has multiple operations. In this case, the operation is a specific operation of a more general module.

• atmtcp_v_dev_open()
• atmtcp_v_dev_init()
• atmtcp_v_dev_close()

Even though open_atmtcp_v_dev() reads better as an English sentence. Programs can be thought as both prose and data, and sometimes there are advantages to considering function and variable names as data.

General->specific naturally organizes things. It is easy to browse variables in an editor that may list all the variables in a module. Searching/refactoring is also easier.

Sometimes when dealing with two unrelated types of information, it is not obvious which is more specific. In the below example, VINST/VPEAK are measurements (type), and AX/AY/... are channels (instance). Which should go first?

• VINST_AX
• VINST_AY
• VINST_AZ
• VPEAK_AX
• ...

Generally I prefer to put the "type" first, and then the "instance" -- especially if there are multiple instances. But this could probably go either way.

Another way to think about this is VINST may be a map/dictionary/hash-table property of an object, and AX/AY/AZ may be keys into this map.

Use nouns for variables and verbs for functions.

Does this make sense? How do you name things?