Naming Conventions
Why have a naming convention?
The OOoAuthors project is large and very active. There are many people writing and reviewing documents. As the project grew in size, it became very difficult to keep track of who was maintaining which file, who had edited it, and which file was the most recent.
For this reason, we have adopted a naming convention for our files. This naming format includes all the necessary information in an unambiguous manner.
The Format
This is the format decided upon:
- First the base file name. For drafts, any meaningful basename is fine. For revisions to published chapters, use the name of the published chapter as the basename (for example, 0201WG-IntroducingWriter). Do not include spaces or punctuation (other than hyphens or underscores) in the file name.
- Then the date the file was last edited, using the "20080712" format (year, month, day).
- Then the initials of the current maintainer.
- When a reviewer submits a revised version, the reviewer would also add their initials.
- Each of these is separated by underscores.
Example
Suppose Daniel Carrera writes a chapter called "Introduction to Styles".
- Daniel initially names the file IntroStyles_20060104_DC.odt
- Jean H. Weber reviews the file and puts her edited version on the Feedback folder with the name IntroStyles_20060110_DC_JHW.odt (notice the change of date).
- Daniel revises the file and uploads the revised file as IntroStyles_10Jan05_DC.odt
- Daniel decides to study for exams and asks Linda Worthington to maintain the file for him (no name change).
- Linda makes edits to the file and calls it IntroStyles_20060205_LW.odt
