[llvm-dev] RFC: changing variable naming rules in LLVM codebase

[JF Bastien via llvm-dev]

> On Jul 18, 2019, at 6:09 PM, Chris Lattner via llvm-dev <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On Jul 18, 2019, at 3:49 PM, Rui Ueyama via llvm-dev <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org <mailto:llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> And one more question:
>> 
>> What is the plan of renaming variables in llvm and clang? Will it be done gradually, i.e. directory by directory?
>> 
>> 
>> That's a big topic. I was thinking of starting a new thread just for that. Originally I was trying to do this directory-by-directory basis, but now I'm inclined to do this in a single extremely large patch. There's a risk of doing this that way (in particular, I'm not confident that I can keep the buildbots green or will be able to make them green in a timely manner after committing), but I think that will make downstream repo maintainer's work easier.
> 
> FWIW, I was originally nervous and slightly opposed to that, but I now agree with you that a big change is probably the right thing to do.

I’m worried that most people have stopped reading this thread because they don’t care about variable naming rules (I certainly don’t). The number of replies in the RFC seem like a long bikeshed, as opposed to a building consensus to do a huge change rather than saying “all new code should follow this new rule". In other words, people who don’t care about variable naming but *do* care about a big sweeping change probably aren’t dissenting, they’re assuming that the new policy will only affect new code.

I’m worried that doing this switchover requires everyone with downstream changes to agree to a timeline. How are we making sure everyone is aware and ready? Will we have something at the dev meeting?

Some more questions:

* Is it worth waiting until after the monorepo migration?
* While we’re at it, should we clang-format everything?
* How do we expect to maintain git blame history, if at all?

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