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    what if he did a copy/paste of the paper and then made it part of his source code as a comment despite the one character variable names? Commented Nov 1, 2010 at 13:25
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    A lot of these variable names have strong meanings to those familiar with the problem domain. To someone familiar with the domain, English names might be less readable than names like sigma or rho. Commented Nov 1, 2010 at 13:50
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    I'm afraid something like rank_error_with_99_pct_confidence is a bit too long for this and wouldn't actually make the formulas any easier to understand. AllegSkill/TrueSkill call those sigma, so I believe it's perfectly acceptable of me to maintain the domain specific name they have. Commented Nov 1, 2010 at 15:37
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    @badp: good names is concise and descriptive; but it does not have to be fully descriptive. For your sigma, it is perfectly good to use rank_error and put the extra detail about 99-percent confidence in the documentation/comment somewhere. Commented Nov 1, 2010 at 17:05
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    @dsimcha: I think those familiar with a particular domain are significantly rarer than those, who never heard of it. And I think those familiar with the domain will be able to cope with plain english names, whereas those not familiar with it will be completely unable to understand what's happening if everything is obfuscated by greek one-letter-variables. Commented Nov 1, 2010 at 17:35