variable naming conventions for when desired name is already defined

Is there a convention for naming a variable when the 开发者_运维技巧name you want is already defined by the language? As an example, I'm currently coding a lisp function that takes two parameters, min and max. Vim's syntax highlighter colors those words though, so it looks like they're already lisp functions. I assume it'd be better to give the parameters different names.

Should I use completely different names? min and max are both short and descriptive though, so I'd like to use them if possible. Should I use a prefix, like myMin and myMax? I'm currently leaning towards that idea. Any suggestions would be helpful.

If you are looking for a very general naming convention - the one that would work well with all names reserved/defined in your language or framework - I really doubt that such convention would be practical or even useful.

I think you should do it on a (common) case by case basis.

Your example looks like one of such common cases: it probably is quite common for functions to have two parameters specifying some range of values. Well, in that case, I'd probably go with names like minValue and maxValue - they seem to be abstract enough to work well in most situations.

BTW, I would not use a prefix like my. However, if you were open to the idea of Apps Hungarian (see discussion on Wikipedia and Joel Spolsky's article), the answer to your question would be much simpler: just use a proper semantic prefix in the names of your parameters (e.g. xMin and xMax for min and max abscissa values).