Applied naming conventions

Mike's Notes

Recent changes to database object names in Pipi 9.

Resources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_notation
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_convention_(programming)
• https://dev.to/adron/pragmatic-database-schema-naming-conventions-practices-and-patterns-1od5
• https://www.reddit.com/r/SQL/comments/1cgszi7/camel_vs_snake_case_db_column_and_variable_naming/
• https://www.bytebase.com/blog/postgres-sql-review-guide/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_relational_database_management_systems
• https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/boxlang-framework/jdbc
• https://compositecode.blog/2020/11/27/name-casing-conventions/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_notation
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obfuscation_(software)

References

• Reference

Repository

• Home > Ajabbi Research > Library >
• Home > Handbook > 

Last Updated

8/01/2026

Applied naming conventions

By: Mike Peters

On a Sandy Beach: 8/01/2026

Mike is the inventor and architect of Pipi and the founder of Ajabbi.

PascalCase and Hungarian Convention naming conventions have been used in hundreds of internal physical databases, DAO, and code packages in Pipi since version 2 (2000-2001).

I have hand-built every database and used code generation to create the DAO, so using PascalCase helped with avoiding spelling errors. (I'm a very bad speller; everything you read is rewritten by Grammarly using British standard business English. 😉)

Naming Conventions

• PascalCase
  "TreeTop"
• CamelCase
  "treeTop"
• SnakeCase
  "tree_top"
• KebabCase
  "tree-top"

Databases

The Data Engine (dta) required changes to support all relational databases. The problem is that all tables and columns are named in PascalCase.

PascalCase example

• tblTreeTop
• qryTreeTop_SelectAll
• TreeTopID

PostgreSQL is case sensitive and automatically converts PascalCase names to lowercase. 

PascalCase converted to lowercase example

• tbltreetop
• qrytreetop_selectall
• treetopid

This makes the names unreadable and prone to human errors. Storing table and column names in SnakeCase solves the problem.

SnakeCase example

• tbl_tree_top
• qry_tree_top_select_all
• tree_top_id

DBMS

Database management systems (DBMS) in use by Pipi or likely to be used in the near future include;

• Couchbase
• Derby
• HSQLDB (HyperSQL)
• MariaDB
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft SQL Server
• MySQL
• Oracle Database
• PostgreSQL
• SQLite
• Virtuoso Universal Server

Others will be added in future.

Workspace

The code names used in the workspace UI can remain in PascalCase (virtual names). Pipi can automatically convert names to other formats behind the scenes. This, in turn, leads to the option of obfuscation.

Code obfuscation

Pipi 9 is increasingly taking over these processes, and most code names should be obfuscated.

"Code obfuscation, specifically using renaming techniques, is a security practice that makes software difficult for humans or computers to reverse-engineer. It is a form of security through obscurity aimed at protecting intellectual property and preventing tampering. 

How Renaming Obfuscation Works

Renaming obfuscation involves changing meaningful names of code elements to functionally correct but meaningless names. 

Original Code: A method named calculateInterestRate might clearly indicate its purpose to a human reading the code.

Obfuscated Code: After renaming, the same method might be called  y09FzL7T. " - Gemini