Semantics *

We present a guide to name entities in code based on putting naming in perspectives of semantic space, design, and readability. 

The main idea is that naming should not be considered as creation of tags, but as a fundamental part of design process, which implies integral and consistent vocabulary to be used. We discuss naming process and naming formalism from these perspectives and we provide guidelines for practical use.

The work is based on 15 years of experience in engineering work, coding and development management in high-tech industries.

The mathematical model of signed sequences with repetitions (texts) is a multiset. The multiset was defined by D. Knuth in 1969 and later studied in detail by A. B. Petrovsky [1]. The universal property of a multiset is the existence of identical elements. The limiting case of a multiset with unit multiplicities of elements is a set. A set with unit multiplicities corresponding to a multiset is called its generating set or domain. A set with zero multiplicity is an empty set.

The previous work from ref [1] describes the method of transforming a sign sequence into algebra through an example of a linguistic text. Two other examples of algebraic structuring of texts of a different nature are given to illustrate the method.

Algebra and language (writing) are two different learning tools. When they are combined, we can expect new methods of machine understanding to emerge. To determine the meaning (to understand) is to calculate how the part relates to the whole. Modern search algorithms already perform the task of meaning recognition, and Google’s tensor processors perform matrix multiplications (convolutions) necessary in an algebraic approach. At the same time, semantic analysis mainly uses statistical methods. Using statistics in algebra, for instance, when looking for signs of numbers divisibility, would simply be strange. Algebraic apparatus is also useful for interpreting the calculations results when recognizing the meaning of a text.