# Abbreviations in source

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/abbreviations-in-source/23126
**Category:** Internals & Design
**Created:** [April 14, 2019, 1:50am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/abbreviations-in-source/23126 "2019-04-14T01:50:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 17

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### Author: ![tk3369](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tk3369/32/2824_2.png) [@tk3369](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tk3369)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/abbreviations-in-source/23126/17 "2019-04-14T17:24:34Z")

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Related topic

> [@Variable name style](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/variable-name-style/18305):
>
> What’s your opinion? I tend to like single-letter variable names e.g. i, j, k for indices, w, h for width and height, s for any string, t for time, etc. Sometimes when I use meaningful / long names, I end up masking an existing function unintentionally (like sum) and then I would end up scratching my head why sum doesn’t work anymore…

It would be hard to change the style completely for a large project like Julia. If we do it partially then it becomes too inconsistent to be useful. Also, existing contributors will probably finding it unpleasant (as seen above).

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