Comments on: Semantic Naming Conventions http://www.adrianpelletier.com/2007/01/24/semantic-naming-conventions/ Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:35:41 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Jason http://www.adrianpelletier.com/2007/01/24/semantic-naming-conventions/#comment-483 Jason Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:52:27 +0000 http://s37188.gridserver.com/blog/?p=136#comment-483 Nice post. This doesn't just apply to web design. As I go through my business classes and my senior capstone I find that I will use effective names for all the charts, graphs and inputs I have to use, and there are many, so that I can remember what they are and what they stand for without having to look through pages and pages of books and notes. This is an invaluable asset when you are working with anything that requires more than one name. Nice post. This doesn’t just apply to web design. As I go through my business classes and my senior capstone I find that I will use effective names for all the charts, graphs and inputs I have to use, and there are many, so that I can remember what they are and what they stand for without having to look through pages and pages of books and notes. This is an invaluable asset when you are working with anything that requires more than one name.

]]> By: Adrian http://www.adrianpelletier.com/2007/01/24/semantic-naming-conventions/#comment-482 Adrian Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:24:15 +0000 http://s37188.gridserver.com/blog/?p=136#comment-482 Thanks for the input, Mike. Adding to what you said, this would be great for icon sets (or other large batches of similar images) where the icon names start with "icon-" or something similar. Much better than searching for user.gif, post.gif, link.gif, magnifier.gif, etc. Thanks for the input, Mike. Adding to what you said, this would be great for icon sets (or other large batches of similar images) where the icon names start with “icon-” or something similar. Much better than searching for user.gif, post.gif, link.gif, magnifier.gif, etc.

]]> By: Michael J. http://www.adrianpelletier.com/2007/01/24/semantic-naming-conventions/#comment-481 Michael J. Thu, 25 Jan 2007 12:22:53 +0000 http://s37188.gridserver.com/blog/?p=136#comment-481 Thanks for posting this. "Human-readable" labels are really important for long-term maintenance and reducing total cost of (site) ownership. It goes to all levels. For instance, image files should be named according to some scheme, so they are grouped in the file listing. Ex: ftr-bkg.jpg hdr-about-left.jpg hdr-buynow.jpg about-topphoto.jpg etc. Folders or files with date-specific info should be sorted correctly in the file list: 2006-01-25-Client 2006-01-25a-Client (I use the full "2006" for clarity, though "06" would work.) All this sounds trivial ("Just sort the file list by date, dummy!") but it turns out that two years down the road, it saves a lot of time and headache and makes you more productive. Thanks for posting this. “Human-readable” labels are really important for long-term maintenance and reducing total cost of (site) ownership.

It goes to all levels. For instance, image files should be named according to some scheme, so they are grouped in the file listing. Ex:

ftr-bkg.jpg
hdr-about-left.jpg
hdr-buynow.jpg
about-topphoto.jpg

etc.

Folders or files with date-specific info should be sorted correctly in the file list:

2006-01-25-Client
2006-01-25a-Client

(I use the full “2006″ for clarity, though “06″ would work.)

All this sounds trivial (“Just sort the file list by date, dummy!”) but it turns out that two years down the road, it saves a lot of time and headache and makes you more productive.

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