URI paths following the typical UNIX directory naming conventions are short and effective. Typically, recurring paths receive heavy use and are optimized for speed (e.g. cd /sm/thg). This works as long as everyone agrees on what each acronym means. We at Eons impose our own standards to maximize the number of distinct folders while minimizing the amount of work to follow a URI.
Three Letter Names
3 letter directory names are preferred, unless the full word is 4 or 5 letters and makes sense to use (e.g. “test” is preferred over “tst”). This is usually done for directories which are also often written in documents. You don’t want to be writing “we tstd te bld cde” in an official document, and having to switch between writing “tst” in some cases and “test” in others is more work than would be saved by occasionally dropping an ‘e’.
If 3 letters are not enough to distinguish one path from another, it is best to spell out the full word. For example, if you have personal photos stored along side operating system disk images, the directory “img” becomes ambiguous. Thus, instead of “img” and “pic”, it would be better to use “disk-images” and “photos”. For more info on descriptive naming conventions, see the Eons naming convention.
Prefer Singular Labels
When creating directories for groups, use a singular label, such that the URI reads /group/thing and not /groups/thing.
For Development
Typical paths used in software development include:
- exe – executables (usually external dependencies)
- build – for CI/CD pipelines, compilation systems, etc.
- dep – dependencies
- ext – dependencies
- inc – include files (usually left as-is in downstream targets)
- lib – library files (usually external dependencies)
- src – source code (usually modified in downstream targets)
- test – any and all tests; will usually contain integration/ and unit/
When bringing in external dependencies, it’s best to use exe and lib, if possible. If your use case exceeds these groupings, prefer ext to dep, and use them both as necessary.