A colleague sends a pull request that renames twenty variables and functions and changes no behaviour. Is that a good use of review time?
Answer it out loud before you open anything. The value of the flags below is in comparing them to what you actually said — including whether you named a cost, or only a principle.
The situation behind the question
The renamed things include data to pendingInvoices, flag to isTaxExempt, process() to chargeAndEmail(), and timeout to timeoutMs. One reviewer says naming is bikeshedding and the diff is noise.
React to this
Say what you would change, what you would leave alone, and what you would need to know first.
The code, or the design, as it stands
You are reviewing:
```ts
// before
function process(data: any[], flag: boolean, timeout: number) { ... }
// after
function chargeAndEmail(pendingInvoices: Invoice[], isTaxExempt: boolean, timeoutMs: number) { ... }
```
What does the improved signature now make obvious that the old one hid, and what is your next suggestion?What it is really testing
Whether the candidate treats names as part of the interface rather than as cosmetics — and whether they can also see the legitimate objection, which is about review size and merge conflicts rather than about naming being unimportant.