Re: [h5md-user] fields of observable group

[Felix Höfling]

Am 26.08.2011, 20:40 Uhr, schrieb Pierre de Buyl  
<address@hidden>:

> Le 26 août 11 à 11:19, Peter Colberg a écrit :
> > On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 04:17:27PM +0200, Felix Höfling wrote:
> > > If there are no objections, I will change "samples" to "sample".
> >
> > No objections from my side.
> >
> > As I proposed earlier (in private mail before this list existed),
> > it would be convenient to rename “coordinates” to “sample” (or
> > “samples”) in the trajectory group, which avoids the necessity
> > of special handling of trajectory versus non-trajectory data.
> OK for me too for "sample" everywhere. This will simplify H5MD codes :-)
>
> Pierre

I'm still a bit unsure, whether singular or plural is nicer. This has been  
discussed in length before, e.g.,
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/338156/table-naming-dilemma-singular-vs-plural-names

A useful rule is mentioned there, which we might adopt for H5MD (and have  
done so already, I think):

In his book "SQL Programming Style," Joe Celko suggests that a collection  
(e.g. a table) should be named in the plural, while a scalar data element  
(e.g. a column) should be named in the singular.

That means a dataset is named in singular (e.g., 'sample'), while a group  
is named in plural (e.g., 'observables').

Another useful guideline may be this one:
http://justinsomnia.org/2003/04/essential-database-naming-conventions-and-style/

Felix