Naming-a-HOWTO

The HOWTO names on the LDP collection are pretty unconsistent. May be we should have some naming policy, let alone for new HOWTOs.

Here are some clues (examples are imaginary :-):

* never use spaces in name (this one seems obvious and is already followed). This is specially difficult in the wiki, at it mostly accepts names with blanks. However this lead to numerous problems, so it have to be restricted.

* use "-" (minus) to replace spaces. Don't use "_" (underscore), because many browsers already underline the links. This ("-") is less visually attractive but can't be confused with space.

* avoid "+" sign (Linux+...). Special characters makes it difficult to sort the title alphabetically, few people know if "-" is before or after "+", for example.

* use significant word first in the title. "Working-with-flash-disks-HOWTO" is nice, but will be sorted by "w" and nobody will find it. "Disk-Flash-Working-HOWTO" may not be so good english, but most people should find it when searching for disk help.

* capitalize the significant words initial. "Coffe-making-with-emacs" is nice, but "Coffe-Making-Emacs-Linux-HOWTO" is probably better - seems english standard for titles (?).

* Place the words "Linux" and "HOWTO" at the end of the title. "Linux-HOWTO-for-speeding-boot" is nice, but hard to find. "Boot-Speeding-Linux-HOWTO" is far better and avoid non significative word ("for").

I'm unsure if we have to keep/add "Linux" and "HOWTO" in the name. It makes names far longer, but if the document is seen outside of the LDP repository it makes it easier to see it's a LDP HOWTO.

May be we should *add* Linux-HOWTO at the end of any HOWTO that not already have it, and move from start to end for the ones that have Linux or HOWTO at start.

When changing a HOWTO name, may be we should keep the old name with a link to the new one?

thanks jdd -- jdd for the Linux Documentation Project http://wiki.tldp.org http://www.dodin.net http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1412160445 http://lists.tldp.org/