Naming Conventions and private variables

[joseph-jja]

I disagree with the idea that naming a private variable should begin with _. If you really need a private variable why not create an object and wrap your variable with setters and getters. If you use _ and someone thinks they need that variable or method they will use it. I have seen it before lots of times. Conventions work when you are doing ruby and rails type implementation and the conventions are required for things to work right, but when conventions are guidlines there is no stopping people from behaving badly. Also this conflicts with the _this, which someone could easily do this._this.

[nkbt]

Conventions obviously could be broken by some developers. But that possibility should not lead to complete dismiss of that convention. If you have code review and some automated solution to check the code - that is not a problem anymore. Developers must not brake code conventions.

[hshoff]

Hi @joseph-jja thanks for checking out the guide!

This has come up before and is a convention in place at Airbnb: #114 (comment)

The important part when working with a large team is consistency, so do whatever works best with your team. 🍻

[netpoetica]

I know this is a closed issue, but I feel I must say, I hope Airbnb stops doing this internally and one day fixes this documentation to get rid of it! I saw this in the wild today and I came to the Airbnb style guide to get documentation to explain why it was a bad idea, and instead, I found that you guys are perpetuating this.

I understand that different companies have different conventions, but this is just plain wrong! These variables are not private at all, and they shouldn't be flagged as such!