Bumpy Case

The practice, in naming variables, subroutines and files in computer programming, is to combine words TogetherLikeThis. Capitalization divides words from each other.

Examples:

• keyboardInterrupt
• KeyboardHandler
• MailHeader
• mailHeader

The alternatives to BumpyCase

• connect words with underscores, together_like_this
• or connect words with dashes, together-like-this

BumpyCase seems more amenable to using variations in capitalization to indicate distinctions than the underscore convention

• For example, MailHeader is clearly a class while mailHeader is clearly an instance
  • clearly? I've seen capped ivars and downcased classes. Like anything, it depends on context.
• Whereas file names and procedure names might utilize the dash-separated or underscore_separated type

When you go with BumpyCase, you have to decide whether to capitalize all the letters in an acronym or just the first one:

• PVCPipeLength
• or PvcPipeLength

There is a problem with some languages and compilers in using the dash in naming is because the dash, or minus-sign, is used as an operator.

Underscore convention can be better with non-case-sensitive elements. If you have a PHP function doThis() there's nothing stopping you (or someone else) calling it as dothis(). do_this() enforces consistent separation.

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BumpyCase is also known as CamelCase. (The CamelCase page focuses on naming conventions for wiki pages while this page focuses on CodingStandards in programming.)