Pascal or camel case for code, snake case for files and screaming snake case for globals

I try to make everything Pascal case. It’s easy to read in a terminal and pretty easy to type.

I like Camel Case for code, but mostly because it’s ingrained in my brain, coming from Java as my first language.

For folders and files, I like Kebab Case.

Both snake and camel case. Sometimes I mix it in the same project and I hate myself for it

I use flat case most of the time, but I also try to stick to single word files so there is no case to get in the way.

I think for documents I might share like a PDF I’d use Pascal case.

In a classroom or teaching setting I will sometimes use Kebab case as I find it is the least confusing and makes it extra clear where the word division is. Similarly I avoid Dot notation since it’s confusing for folks coming from a Windows world.

And I would avoid Screaming because that’s just too loud anywhere.

FileName_IMPORTANTCATEGORIZATION.yyyy.ext

With all bits being optional (not every file needs the date it refers to)

So eg (slight modifications for anonymity):

SunLifeInsureance_SIGNED.2024.Q1.pdf

SpotDoesTrickAndFalls_ORIG.mp4

JSmithPassport_CANADA.2015_2025.pdf (I am a dual citizen)

JSmithCOVIDPass_DOSE1.2021.pdf

For files? I like title case (like in article headlines). For example, I have a “Shell Tricks.txt”. I’m not really consistent though, sometimes it’s all lowercase or whatever really.

It depends a bit on the use case. I try to follow naming conventions within specific environments like Python. When just sorting some documents together, I usually do a mix of Kebab and snake case, where I split semantic parts with underscores and connect words with dashes like

2024-08-30_author_document-name_other-important-info.ext

Camel case, but with a twist – if the next word is about to start after a capital letter, I’ll have it lower case.

topSecretFBIfile.txt for example

COOLFI~1.AME

I don’t have a consistent style for everything and it depends on the circumstances. snake_case is often used, especially to avoid spaces. Sometimes I just do flatcase instead, and in rare cases also kebab-case or combined_snake-and-kebab-case. The combined_case is often useful to group parts of the name, like a dates and version numbers together and to indicate what part is constant; example-name_2024-08. Sometimes I also do the “Title Case”, which is basically PascalCase, but with spaces. Or even even more weird, “Python_Case”, which is PascalCase, but with snake_case, when I want to avoid spaces.

I often avoid dots in regular filenames, unless they indicate a file extension or format, such as “.svg” and “.inkscape.svg” to indicate its a specific version of the SVG format. Or “.xiso.iso”, as a specific compressed version of the regular ISO file (for use with Xemu emulator). Basically the same logic and tradition as “.tar.gz” (but in reverse order).

For files, date+Snake: 20240831Letter_to_Rodney.odt For variables, Screaming

camelCase for non-source-code files. I find camelCase faster to “parse” for some reason (probably just because I’ve spent thousands of hours reading and writing camelCase code). For programming, I usually just use whatever each language’s standard library uses, for consistency. I prefer camelCase though.

How about “cool file name”?

All my systems use modern file systems that are case sensitive and can contain any character except / and \0.

IWRITELOTSOFBASH