avoid problematic identifier names

Choose identifier names that avoid system compatibility issues and follow proper naming conventions. Avoid reserved words, system-problematic names, and invalid characters that can cause issues across different platforms or violate language standards.

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Choose identifier names that avoid system compatibility issues and follow proper naming conventions. Avoid reserved words, system-problematic names, and invalid characters that can cause issues across different platforms or violate language standards.

Key guidelines:

  • Avoid names that conflict with system reserved words (e.g., “aux” causes issues on Windows)
  • Restrict identifiers to safe character sets (alphanumeric, underscores, hyphens where appropriate)
  • Exclude spaces and special characters that may not be universally supported
  • Use full descriptive names instead of abbreviated forms that might conflict with system names

Example from the codebase:

# Problematic - 'aux' is reserved on Windows
from self_hosting_machinery.finetune.scripts.aux.finetune_filter_status_tracker import FinetuneFilterStatusTracker

# Better - use full descriptive name
from self_hosting_machinery.finetune.scripts.auxiliary.finetune_filter_status_tracker import FinetuneFilterStatusTracker

# Problematic - spaces in identifier validation
if not re.match("^[a-zA-Z0-9_ -]*$", v):

# Better - exclude spaces from allowed characters
if not re.match("^[a-zA-Z0-9_-]*$", v):

This prevents deployment issues, ensures cross-platform compatibility, and maintains consistent identifier standards across the codebase.

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