Dear members,
On Sat, May 3, 2025, at 16:10, Duncan Sparrell via OASIS wrote:
> We are currently stuck on the motion to create the work products directory in the GitHub repo. Some of the discussion is occurring on GitHub so I'm repeating it here and asking for the opinion of others. My PR#8 <https: github.com oasis-tcs dps pull 8> uses CamelCase. Stephan has a blocking review requesting change to kebab-case. I believe it's more a style issue than a technical issue (but it can be argued differently). I believe this because the directory and filenames won't be in code (software or html) to my knowledge. I've always used CamelCase because I was a software developer and that crowd prefers CamelCase because hypens are subtraction and confuse java or javascript. as well as makes it longer with extra characters. The HTML crowd prefers kebab-cases since URLs are case-insensitive (personally I like CamelCase for that reason and just don't have two filenamess that only differ by case).
>
> The root issues is to not include spaces in filenames because of issues with software and operating systems. Both solve the problem. Since the vote is currently 1 to 1, I'm sending this email to see what others think. I wouldn't fall on my sword if everyone else prefers kebab-case, but I also don't want to do the work to make the change if it's only Stefan than prefers kebab-case.
>
> Whichever we decide, we should decide, make it a rule, and move on to actually doing the work.
>
> Duncan Sparrell [...]
maybe I cannot join the call on Tuesday, so I also support the discussion
here. First, as a general remark: I think we have plenty of time, believe me.
I sense that there is more rush than usually sustainable over the life span
of a TC. Having that out of the way, here comes my praise for kebab-case.
0) we are creating a structure for things that will not be directly
imported in programming languages that have problems with dashes.
1) two very far-spread operating systems lie about case. You ask them for
SomeFunnyMultiWordThing (PascalCase, not camelCase by the way) and these
(in the default settings) will happily yield any available case variation
they find, like somefunnymultiwordthing or SOMEFUNNYMULTIWORDTHING.
There on Windows or Mac, when you create a someFunnyMultiWordThing (camelCase)
it will take that case you typed, note somewhere, and next time you ask,
git will happily send it out as exactly that case-mix upwards to the repository.
Now you have two objects: SomeFunnyMultiWordThing and someFunnyMultiWordThing.
2) we live in a world of single line text-input and text-display fields,
e.g. the browser address-field or some form text-input field where
snake_case loses the underscore a bit visually while kebab-case is clear.
3) as soon as we get a resource from a web-server, normally case is
significant and prone to failures in the path part of the URL.
So, using all lower-case characters is easing the user experience.
To still separate words and remove ambiguity, you add a dash, done.
4) artifical ways to glue multi-word terms together require a strong
convention and have to provide real benefit, which we do not have
in mostly web-consumed directory-trees.
5) in human languages that allow multi-word constructs, using a dash
as hyphen is often a safe choice.
6) in case we want to place acronyms into file-paths it is clear
to everyone how this will read, like json-examples, while in
the GluedTogether worlds you may have jsonExamples, JsonExamples,
JSONExamples, or jSONExamples, which nicely leads to inconsistency
and frustration.
Sorry, for the zero-based counting, but I wanted to emphasize the
freedom from say python import rules we have here.
PS: I will have to exchange the hardware I use to connect to
the world on Tuesday afternoon Swiss time, which is why I may
not be able to join our call, for purely technical reasons.
Cheers,
Stefan.
Original Message:
Sent: 5/3/2025 10:11:00 AM
From: Duncan Sparrell
Subject: Opinions desired on CamelCase vs kebab-case
We are currently stuck on the motion to create the work products directory in the GitHub repo. Some of the discussion is occurring on GitHub so I'm repeating it here and asking for the opinion of others. My PR#8 uses CamelCase. Stephan has a blocking review requesting change to kebab-case. I believe it's more a style issue than a technical issue (but it can be argued differently). I believe this because the directory and filenames won't be in code (software or html) to my knowledge. I've always used CamelCase because I was a software developer and that crowd prefers CamelCase because hypens are subtraction and confuse java or javascript. as well as makes it longer with extra characters. The HTML crowd prefers kebab-cases since URLs are case-insensitive (personally I like CamelCase for that reason and just don't have two filenamess that only differ by case).
The root issues is to not include spaces in filenames because of issues with software and operating systems. Both solve the problem. Since the vote is currently 1 to 1, I'm sending this email to see what others think. I wouldn't fall on my sword if everyone else prefers kebab-case, but I also don't want to do the work to make the change if it's only Stefan than prefers kebab-case.
Whichever we decide, we should decide, make it a rule, and move on to actually doing the work.
------------------------------
Duncan Sparrell
Chief Cyber Curmudgeion
sFractal Consulting LLC
Oakton VA
703-828-8646
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