Re: [h5md-user] fields of observable group

[Pierre de Buyl]

> > > 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/

A coherent naming scheme would then be the following ? (with the  
capital S lowercased, indeed)
/observableS/energy/{sample,step,time}
/trajectorieS/colloid/position/{sample,step,time}

Pierre