What should I call a class that contains a sequence of states

Question

I have a GUI tool that manages state sequences. One component is a class that contains a set of states, your typical DFA state machine. For now, I'll call this a StateSet (I have a more specific name in mind for the actual class that makes sense, but this name I think will suffice for the purpose of this question.)

However, I have another class that has a collection (possibly partially unordered) of those state sets, and lists them in a particular order. and I'm trying to come up with a good name for it - not just for internal code, but for customers to refer to it.

The role of this particular second collection is to encapsulate the entire currently used/available collection of StateSets that the user has created. All of the StateSets will be used eventually in the application. A good analogy would be a hand of cards versus the entire table: The 'table' contains all of the currently available hands, while the 'hand' contains a particular collection of cards.

I've got these as starter ideas I could throw out for the class name; I'm not comfortable with either at the moment:

• Sequence (maybe...with something else tacked on to the name)
• StateSetSet (reasonable for code, but not for customers)

And as ewernli mentions, these are really technical terms, which don't really convey a the idea well. Any other suggestions or ideas?

Answer 1

• Sequence - Definitely NOT. It's too generic, and doesn't have any real semantic meaning.
• StateSetSet - While more semantically correct, this is confusing. You have a sequence, which implies order, which is different from a set, which does not.

That being said, the best option, IMO, is StateSetSequence, as it implies you have a sequence of StateSet instances.

Answer 2

"StateSets" may be sufficient.

Others: StateSetList StateSetLister StateSetListing StateSetSequencer

Answer 3

I like StateSetArrangement, implying an ordering without implying anything about the underlying storage mechanisms.

Answer 4

What is the role/function of you StateSetSet?

• StateSetSet or Sequence are technical terms.
• Prefer a term that convey the role/function of the class.

That could well be something like History, Timeline, WorldSnapshot,...

EDIT

According to your updated description, StateSet looks to me like StateSpace (the space of all possible states). If the user can then interactively create something, it might be appropriate to speak of a Workspace. If the user creates various state spaces of interest, I would then go for StateSpaceWorkspace. Isn't that a cool name :)