Use of word `Descriptor` when naming class

Question

I am finding this rather difficult to explain, so I shall start with a little context. The examples in brackets are oversimplified but should be enough to get my intention across.

• There are 6 kinds of brush class (i.e. Pencil, Pen)
• There can be countless instances of each of those 6 brush classes where each instance defines a specific brush (i.e. HB Pencil, B8 Pencil)

I would like to create a descriptor class that describes each of the 6 brush kinds. This class will include the System.Type of the brush class, the System.Type of the brush editor class along with some more advanced stuff.

Should my class be called BrushDescriptor or BrushKindDescriptor?

I want to clarify that the descriptor describes the Pencil class itself and not the HB Pencil object.

Answer 1

Firstly I don't think descriptor or kind are the right words here; but first the answer.

The class should be called BrushDescriptor as BrushKindDescriptor is a tautology and doesn't add anything.

However as descriptor really means to describe or identify - and you're not really doing this you are building a class that will allow a specific type of brush to be defined, so the word should be definition.

If you said "6 brush definitions" instead of "6 kinds of brush class" I think it's better English makes it clearer and thusly maybe you should be using BrushDefinition instead.