Classnames

Upgrading my computer’s operating system is an opportunity to undertake a digital detox; reviewing which applications are still needed, deciding where folders should live and which files should be deleted.

After upgrading to macOS Sonoma on Tuesday, I again found myself looking at a Markdown file that has been languishing on my laptop for more than 8 years.

Shortly after I wrote Naming Things for 24 ways in 2014, me and Emil talked about creating a resource that would give examples of the different metaphors we lean on when naming things in our code.

We ended up collaborating on a word list, adding and categorising words, while I considered the design of a site that could display them. I even started looking into using Wordnik’s API to create a page for each word. As the complexity grew, great became the enemy of good and the project stalled. But I kept the word list around in that Markdown file in the hope that I might one day make it public.

That day is today. Prompted by Uncle Dave’s post about one day builds, I committed myself to doing the least amount of work needed to publish it in a useful fashion. Could it be a blog post? It needed more structure. Could I use a template? Just the Docs, a template for Jekyll, was too constraining and each Eleventy theme meant reckoning with somebody else’s code.

Then I realised I could repurpose one of my own side-projects.

I’d created the GOV.UK Eleventy Plugin to make it easier to build documentation sites for teams inside government, but it provides enough templating to build a small website for something like this. Built atop Eleventy, I could make any adaptions as needed and ensure the resulting website didn’t look like GOV.UK.

This proved to be enough to get moving, and after a few hours I’d made a thing. It’s called Classnames.

This small website provides a list of words that you can refer to when naming something like an HTML class, custom CSS property or JavaScript function. Each word links to a page on Wordnik, an online dictionary that does the hard work of providing multiple definitions and listing related words.

Where relevant, words are paired with an opposite and include a Latin translation (useful when you need a name that is semantic but not overly prescriptive). I’ve also crossed out those whose usage is discouraged.

Rather than buy a custom domain, I’m taking Chris’s advice and using a subdomain of this website.

Is this useful? I’m not sure. Personally, I’ve not been involved in many projects recently where I’ve struggled to name something, but think I would have found this useful if I had.

It’s hosted on GitHub meaning folks can contribute words and improve the website if they like. And I can now delete that Markdown file on my laptop.