One of the Best Bits of Programming Advice I ever Got

Aren't all words which end in -er, and used as class names, nouns ?

166 violations, of the 4025 classes/interfaces in java 7:

That's 4% of Sun's own JDK, not counting user defined classes. In my 15 years of Java pgmming, I've seen enterprise programmers almost always start out their OO design with a class named "xyzmanager"...probably reflecting their subliminal desire to become a manager someday :)

------ AbstractDocument.AttributeContext AbstractRegionPainter.PaintContext AbstractRegionPainter.PaintContext.CacheMode AccessControlContext AccessibleContext AppletContext BAD_CONTEXT BeanContext BeanContextChild BeanContextChildComponentProxy BeanContextChildSupport BeanContextContainerProxy BeanContextEvent BeanContextMembershipEvent BeanContextMembershipListener BeanContextProxy BeanContextServiceAvailableEvent BeanContextServiceProvider BeanContextServiceProviderBeanInfo BeanContextServiceRevokedEvent BeanContextServiceRevokedListener BeanContextServices BeanContextServicesListener BeanContextServicesSupport BeanContextServicesSupport.BCSSServiceProvider BeanContextSupport BeanContextSupport.BCSIterator CompositeContext Context Context ContextList ContextNotEmptyException ContextualRenderedImageFactory DirContext DOMCryptoContext DOMSignContext DOMValidateContext DragSourceContext DropTargetContext EndpointContext EventContext EventDirContext FontRenderContext GSSContext HttpContext InitialContext InitialContextFactory InitialContextFactoryBuilder InitialDirContext InitialLdapContext InputContext InputMethodContext JAXBContext LdapContext LogicalMessageContext LoginContext MathContext MessageContext MessageContext.Scope NamespaceContext NamingContext NamingContextExt NamingContextExtHelper NamingContextExtHolder NamingContextExtOperations NamingContextExtPOA NamingContextHelper NamingContextHolder NamingContextOperations NamingContextPOA NoContext NoContextHelper NoInitialContextException NotContextException PaintContext RenderContext ScriptContext ServiceContext ServiceContextHelper ServiceContextHolder ServiceContextListHelper ServiceContextListHolder SimpleScriptContext SOAPMessageContext SSLContext SSLContextSpi SSLSessionContext StyleContext SynthContext WebServiceContext XMLCryptoContext XMLSignContext XMLValidateContext _NamingContextExtStub _NamingContextImplBase _NamingContextStub ActivationGroupDesc.CommandEnvironment Environment GraphicsEnvironment GroupPrincipal JMXPrincipal KerberosPrincipal Principal Principal PrincipalHolder ProcessingEnvironment RoundEnvironment UserPrincipal UserPrincipalLookupService UserPrincipalNotFoundException X500Principal AdapterManagerIdHelper BeanContextContainerProxy CertPathTrustManagerParameters Container ContainerAdapter ContainerEvent ContainerListener ContainerOrderFocusTraversalPolicy CookieManager DefaultDesktopManager DefaultFocusManager DefaultKeyboardFocusManager DesktopManager DirectoryManager DomainManager DomainManagerOperations DriverManager ErrorManager FocusManager ForwardingJavaFileManager GSSManager JavaFileManager JavaFileManager.Location JComboBox.KeySelectionManager KeyboardFocusManager KeyManager KeyManagerFactory KeyManagerFactorySpi LayoutManager LayoutManager2 LogManager ManageReferralControl ManagerFactoryParameters MemoryManagerMXBean MenuContainer MenuSelectionManager NamingManager POAManager POAManagerOperations PropertyEditorManager RepaintManager RMISecurityManager RootPaneContainer ScriptEngineManager SecurityManager ServantManager ServantManagerOperations StandardJavaFileManager ToolTipManager TrustManager TrustManagerFactory TrustManagerFactorySpi UIManager UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo UndoManager ---------

"What's in a name anyway?" yeah, there's something in a name, it is always good to have a good convention and style in programming

But I agree with @Kototama

Agreed. The reason I end up with some '-er' classes is to separate out immutable definitions and the classes that work on the definitions. In your example, by making the FlowchartShape a simple definition class, you can then write that to a file or send it over the network as a snapshot of the state of the -er classes.

If the article's advice was taken, you'd end up renaming WebServer to be WebPage, but then would have nothing to name a WebPage. (Maybe WebPageSnapshot?)