New note

Author: brookback

Diff for: src/notes/2025-01-24-15-18-18.md

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+---
+date: '2025-01-24T15:18:18+02:00'
+location: Cape Town, South Africa
+timezone: Africa/Johannesburg
+title: Code greppability
+tags:
+    - dev
+---
+
+**Code greppability** is such an underrated code metric in how we judge and work with a code base.
+
+At work, we try to be very diligent in how we name
+
+- database columns,
+- file names,
+- functions,
+- one-off variables.
+
+We pick a _noun_ for a new feature and stick with it throughout the "vertical" that forms **from frontend to database**. This makes it really easy to trace a feature's flow through the various layers. Same goes with the _verbs_ that form actions on the feature noun: those should be consistent too.
+
+I use the _greppability_ to my advantage in two cases:
+
+1. **Project wide search.** I hit <kbd>cmd+shift+f</kbd> and search for my keyword.
+2. **File search.** I hit <kbd>cmd+f</kbd> and spam `next` to step through all the call sites the feature touches in the local file. This gives me an overview quite quickly.
+
+Some examples:
+
+## Always do named exports
+
+In Javascript:
+
+```ts
+// ❌ DON'T
+export const myFunction = () => {};
+
+// This has now been renamed 😰
+import { myFunction as someOtherName } from './module';
+```
+
+Although Language Servers will pick up this on-the-fly alias, we don't like it.
+
+Same goes with default exports:
+
+```ts
+// ❌ DON'T
+export default function myFunction() {}
+
+// This has now been renamed 😰
+import someOtherName from './module';
+```
+
+## Be specific
+
+Avoid terms like `utils` and `process` in a feature's various functions. Name it with what they do, specifically.
+
+## Context
+
+Okay, inside of a scoped function (see below), we allow ourselves to be looser with the one-off variable names:
+
+```ts
+export const myFeatureCreate = async () => {
+    // ❌ DON'T
+    const myFeatureExisting = await db.find(...);
+    // ✅ DO
+    const existing = await db.find(...);
+};
+```
+
+However, if we use some _other_ feature/model, we are strict with naming:
+
+```ts
+export const myFeatureCreate = async () => {
+    // ❌ DON'T
+    const docs = await db.find(...);
+    // ✅ DO
+    const otherFeatureDocs = await db.find(...);
+};
+```
+
+## Problem: Scoping
+
+"Okay, so you don't use the ES Module system to the fullest. How do you cope with name collisions?".
+
+We do it the old fashioned way of… 🥁 _prefixing_! Such as:
+
+```ts
+// Some model file
+export const myFeatureCreate = () => {};
+
+export const myFeatureUpdate = () => {};
+```
+
+If you start typing `myFeature…`, your editor's <abbr title="Language Server Protocol">LSP</abbr> integration will probably autocomplete with a list of the available functions above. Simplicity!