Why ban underscores?

Why ban underscores?

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Guix, Ludo',

I was surprised by this commit:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
commit 426ade6c8bdab243da719e369a887284368179bb (upstream/master)
Author: Xinglu Chen <public@yoctocell.xyz>

    import: go: Replace underscores with hyphens in package names.

    As per section '16.4.2 Package Naming' in the manual, use 
    hypens
    [sic] instead of underscores in package names.

    * guix/import/go.scm (go-module->guix-package-name): Replace
    underscores with hyphens.

    Signed-off-by: Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name>
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Indeed, underscores were explicitly banned in 2014 (commit 
25083588).  Why?

Where's the advantage in renaming the following packages from 
their canonical names?

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λ ./pre-inst-env guix lint -c name # not upstream yet :-)
guix/packages.scm:464:2: efi_analyzer@0.0.0-0.77c9e3a: name should 
not contain '_'
gnu/packages/file-systems.scm:606:10: jfs_fsck-static@1.1.15: name 
should not contain '_'
gnu/packages/installers.scm:36:12: nsis-x86_64@3.05: name should 
not contain '_'
gnu/packages/mingw.scm:47:12: mingw-w64-x86_64@8.0.0: name should 
not contain '_'
gnu/packages/mingw.scm:47:12: mingw-w64-x86_64-winpthreads@8.0.0: 
name should not contain '_'
gnu/packages/perl.scm:2264:10: perl-crypt-unixcrypt_xs@0.11: name 
should not contain '_'
gnu/packages/python-web.scm:2528:10: python-requests_ntlm@1.1.0: 
name should not contain '_'
gnu/packages/ruby.scm:5450:10: ruby-progress_bar@1.1.0: name 
should not contain '_'
gnu/packages/ruby.scm:9222:10: ruby_version@1.0.2: name should not 
contain '_'
gnu/packages/ruby.scm:4808:10: ruby-data_uri@0.1.0: name should 
not contain '_'
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I'd rather change the manual to allow underscores than blacklist 
them, but am curious why they were cancelled in the first place.

Kind regards,

T G-R

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Re: Why ban underscores?

[Vincent Legoll]

Hello,

On Sun, Apr 4, 2021 at 10:49 PM Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr> wrote:
> nsis-x86_64
> mingw-w64-x86_64
> mingw-w64-x86_64-winpthreads

That will make really strange names, at least for those

-- 
Vincent Legoll

Re: Why ban underscores?

[Mark H Weaver]

Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr> writes:

> Indeed, underscores were explicitly banned in 2014 (commit 
> 25083588).  Why?
>
> Where's the advantage in renaming the following packages from 
> their canonical names?

While I was not involved in this decision, I think it's desirable to
standardize on a single hyphen-like character.  Otherwise, it is likely
that people who prefer "_" over "-" will start using "_" in newly added
package names, which could lead to a proliferation of undesirable
diversity in our choices of hyphen-like characters.  Then, we'd all have
to remember when typing a package name: "is this one of those packages
that uses underscores instead of hyphens?"

       Mark

Re: Why ban underscores?

[Bengt Richter]

Hi,

On +2021-04-04 17:05:57 -0400, Mark H Weaver wrote:
> Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr> writes:
> 
> > Indeed, underscores were explicitly banned in 2014 (commit 
> > 25083588).  Why?
> >
> > Where's the advantage in renaming the following packages from 
> > their canonical names?
> 
> While I was not involved in this decision, I think it's desirable to
> standardize on a single hyphen-like character.  Otherwise, it is likely
> that people who prefer "_" over "-" will start using "_" in newly added
> package names, which could lead to a proliferation of undesirable
> diversity in our choices of hyphen-like characters.  Then, we'd all have
> to remember when typing a package name: "is this one of those packages
> that uses underscores instead of hyphens?"
> 
>        Mark
> 

I note that underscore is not one of the
safe 73 characters mentioned in rfc2049.

Maybe related?
-- 
Regards,
Bengt Richter

Re: Why ban underscores?

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Tobias,

Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <me@tobias.gr> skribis:

> I was surprised by this commit:
>
> commit 426ade6c8bdab243da719e369a887284368179bb (upstream/master)
> Author: Xinglu Chen <public@yoctocell.xyz>
>
>     import: go: Replace underscores with hyphens in package names.
>
>     As per section '16.4.2 Package Naming' in the manual, use 
>     hypens
>     [sic] instead of underscores in package names.
>
>     * guix/import/go.scm (go-module->guix-package-name): Replace
>     underscores with hyphens.
>
>     Signed-off-by: Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name>
>
>
> Indeed, underscores were explicitly banned in 2014 (commit 
> 25083588).  Why?

It’s a convention.  As Mark wrote, it’s mostly for the sake of
consistency.

> Where's the advantage in renaming the following packages from 
> their canonical names?

These package names didn’t follow the convention, so the change would
bring them back in line.  The “advantage” is just consistent naming and
following the rule of least surprise.

Now, renames should only be performed with proper ‘deprecated-package’
definitions in place so users aren’t caught by surprise.

I hope that makes sense!

Ludo’.