Master Defensive Programming: Unconventional Naming Tricks & OOP Hacks

Defensive programming has resurfaced as a buzzword, originally meaning meticulous and cautious coding to build reliable software, but now it also serves to protect programmers’ positions within companies.

Code Writing

Single‑character variable names

In Java, variable names can consist of Unicode letters, digits, underscores, or dollar signs, and the first character cannot be a digit.

There are 54 possible single‑character names (26 uppercase, 26 lowercase, underscore, dollar), which is usually sufficient for a single Java file.

Using Chinese names

Chinese characters are valid Unicode identifiers, providing about 20,902 additional single‑character options, making naming extremely flexible.

Using multilingual names

Variable names can be written in any language supported by Unicode, though readability may suffer for non‑native speakers.

CV Method

The article humorously presents the OOP fundamentals—abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, and composition—as a "CV" technique, describing each concept’s benefits and providing a short dialogue illustrating the idea.

Product Development

It advocates hard‑coding configuration values, using magic numbers, and keeping code minimal and tightly coupled to the developer, arguing that this reinforces the developer’s indispensability.

Ultimately, defensive programming is portrayed as a way to safeguard the programmer’s role and ensure smooth project delivery.