Is it just me who finds this poor style and potentially confusing:
<?phpfunction my_function($nodes) { foreach ($nodes as $nid) { // do stuff }}?>To me, a variable names $nodes will be an array of nodes -- that is, node objects. If it's an array of nids, I would call it $nids to avoid confusion about what we have there.
I'm curious if other people agree (in other words, is it worth my time writing a patch for core or will it just lead to bikeshedding?)
In general, though, I think it's a good idea for variables to be named in such a way that describes what they hold; also for the same data to have the same variable name as it travels through functions. In other words, avoid this:
<?phpfunction foo() { bar($ponies);}function bar($caterpillars) {}?>Unless there's a good reason, say if bar() is generic and can accept any animal. In which case, call its parameter $animals, obviously.