 <p>This is little more than a matter of opinion. So, here's mine.</p> <ol> <li>Don't sweat the small stuff</li> <li>Check out <a href="http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0321113586" rel="nofollow noreferrer">other</a> people's opinions on the matter (which you're doing)</li> <li>It matters less which convention you choose, and much much more that you apply it consistantly</li> <li><p>Here's some of my convention:</p> <blockquote> <pre><code>class MyGizmo { public: int DoIt(); private: string myString_; }; typedef vector&lt;MyGizmo&gt; MyGizmos; namespace somewhere { MyGizmos gizmos; }; int MyGizmo::DoIt() { int retVal = 0; string strCopy = myString; retVal = strCopy.length(); return retVal; } </code></pre> </blockquote></li> </ol>