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I have a program where one thread creates a work queue and a bunch of workers that pull from it, and occasionally does some cleanup work for the workers. If the workers are all instances of FooWorker, what would I name the other class? One idea I've had so far is a FooManager, but maybe there's a better one?

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Sounds good to me. Naming is hard so if you've got something that works go with it. – ChrisF♦ May 2 '11 at 22:24

5 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

There are some common names used for classes doing some expected logic:

  • xxxManager - managing something, delegating something, coordinating something
  • xxxWorker - doing some job, processing something
  • xxxService - exposing logic functions in more meaningful / less granular way
  • xxxContext - storing some processing state, data
  • etc.

So FooManager in your case is a good choice. I also heard that once developer don't know how to name his class he uses xxxManager but I don't agree with that.

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Service might actually make more sense in my case. Thanks. – Brendan Long May 2 '11 at 22:47
up vote 4 down vote

The worker threads are called FooComrade. The thread that controls the worker threads is also called FooComrade.

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If the controller does different work than the workers, a different name helps. Otherwise all classes could be named Foo. – user1249 May 3 '11 at 5:40
5  
And I suppose a good name for a context object would be TheParty :) – user1041 May 3 '11 at 7:23
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Some comrades are more == than others. – Mike Baranczak May 3 '11 at 19:09
up vote 3 down vote

Dispatcher?

Manager is another alternative

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I prefer manager, for me, dispatcher sounds like something used for dispatching events. – JD Isaacks May 3 '11 at 3:06
Erlang/OTP calls them "Supervisor", manager would also work – Zachary K May 3 '11 at 13:32
up vote 2 down vote

According to Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture this is called the "Master Slave" pattern. So the worker threads could be FooSlaves and the master thread could be FooMaster.

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7  
How about Foominatrix? – Joel Etherton May 3 '11 at 13:15
up vote 1 down vote

How about Manager + Slave ?

Or maybe RudeManagerThread and HarriedWorkerWhoIsASlaveThread just for getting that kick. Make sure though who reviews your code.

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