From: Scott Gonyea <scott@...>
Date: 2010-11-16T08:06:44+09:00
Subject: Re: How to Name Gems - A STRONG Recommendation

Also, don't forget to name your gem after something common to the outside-world.  Really common. Plugging up Google is a team effort, people.

Scott

On Nov 15, 2010, at 2:19 PM, Eric Hodel wrote:

> If you went to the first round of RubyConf lightning talks you saw me say this already, but I got enough applause that this needs wider dissemination.
> 
> Here is my STRONG recommendation on how to name gems:
> 
> == Use underscores
> 
> * fancy_require
> * newrelic_rpm
> * ruby_parser
> 
> This matches the file the user will require and makes it easier for the user to start using your gem. gem install my_gem will be loaded by require 'my_gem'.
> 
> == Use dashes for extensions
> 
> * net-http-persistent
> * rdoc-chm
> * autotest-growl
> 
> If you're adding functionality to another gem use a dash. The dash is different-enough from an underscore to be noticeable. If you tilt the dash a bit it becomes a slash as well, making it easier for the user to know what to require. gem install net-http-persistent becomesrequire 'net/http/persistent'
> 
> == Don't use UPPERCASE letters
> 
> OS X and Windows have case-insensitive filesystems by default. Users may mistakenly require files from a gem using uppercase letters which will be non-portable if they move it to a non-windows or OS X system. While this will mostly be a newbie mistake we don't need to be confusing them more than necessary.
> 
> If you would like to pass this around outside the list I've got this on my blog as well:
> 
> Short: http://bit.ly/gem_names
> Long:  http://blog.segment7.net/articles/2010/11/15/how-to-name-gems