README-FileNamingConventions.md

Conventions for Naming Files and Directories

Following these conventions makes it easier for everyone to make sense of code and data repositories.

0. Camelcase file names. If necessary, you may use hyphens to break up groups of concepts and as a last resort use underscores for additional delineation.

1. Start the file name with the most general concept and proceed to the more specific. For example README-FileNamingConventions.md is first and foremost a README and is specifically about file naming conventions. Following this convention will make the reason for your file's existence at least partly self-explanatory.

2. Avoid unnecessary abbreviations. The abbreviations whose meanings might seem obvious to you won't be obvious to someone who didn't experience the same view of life that you've experienced. There is no real need to limit file names to a few characters.

3. Avoid spaces and all special characters (except - and _ as necessary, see above). Following this convention saves a lot of headache with referencing file names across platforms.

4. Every directory should have a README.md. Use this to provide a brief summary of the directory's contents.

5. Examples of the file names in the Noisy compiler implementation: noisy-irPass-protobufBackend.c, noisy-timeStamps.c, etc.

6. Avoid naming files that differ only by case, e.g., avoid having input-a.txt and input-A.txt in the same path, because some filesystems are case insensitive.