I should have known better than to suggest something to do with layout or identifiers! We all have our own religious views. ;) Actually, I'm pretty much in agreement with you. I'm not a fan of Hungarian notation (never was), and I agree that, should the need arise for a variable with broad scope, it should definitely not use one of these short identifiers. But it's unusual in Scala to have such wide-scoped variables. These are most definitely designed for the minimum-scope situations (like a couple of lines, as you put it). I thought it was clear, but please forgive me for making that assumption.