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From: dsill@RELAY.NSWC.NAVY.MIL
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs
Subject: Emacs Lisp Archives -- organization
Message-ID: <8906231918.AA20625@AENEAS.MIT.EDU>
Date: 23 Jun 89 19:18:15 GMT
References: <8906231624.AA00970@flash.>
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|From: sdr@flash.Alliant.COM (Stephen D. Rogers)
|
|[Directory names should be singular, e.g., "mode" vs "modes",
|"function" vs "functions", etc.]

That's fine with me.  That much less to type.

|I think that file names in the archive should be based on package names,
|prefixed by the login name of the author.  If login names are duplicated,
|add a digit to end of the login name.  The same prefix should be used for
|the same author throughout the archive.  For example,
|
|	(autoload 'C++-mode "mode/sdr-C++")

Not a bad idea.

|It would also be worthwhile to provide an AUTHORS file for the archive,
|which provided a cross reference of author id, name, and e-mail address.
|For example,
|
|	sdr	"Stephen D. Rogers"	srogers@graphics.alliant.com

Oops, I thought the author's ID would be his login name.  Otherwise, a
good idea.

|One last thought: If file name length is an issue, perhaps the author
|specification should be an additional directory level, rather than
|a prefix.  For example,
|
|	(autoload 'shell-mode "mode/sdr1/shell")

I suppose it is.  I'd like to keep all names at or below 14 characters
(13 for .el files to prevent conflict with the corresponding .elc
file.) for SysV folks.  Should I even try to indicate the type of the
file using an extension?  How about .el (elisp), .shar (shar archive),
.pat (diffs intended for patch)?

|Maybe better: we should just add the digit to the package name as
|an extension.  For example,
|
|	(autoload 'shell-mode "mode/shell.1")
|
|In this case, the first field in the AUTHORS file should be the
|relative package name instead of the author id.

You lost me here.  Could you explain that differently?

-Dave Sill
 dsill@relay.nswc.navy.mil
 elisp archive coordinator