Proposal: Prefix "java-" for Java packages

Proposal: Prefix "java-" for Java packages

[Hartmut Goebel]

Hi,

I propose the following specification:

To avoid confusion and naming clashes with other programming languages,
it's desirable that the name of a package for a Java package contains
the word "java". If a project already contains the word java, we drop
this; for instance, the module ffmpeg-java is packaged under the name
java-ffmpeg.

Java programs standing for themselves are named as any other package,
using the lowercase upstream name.


Rational:

Like other programming languages (R, Perl, Python, guile, etc.), java
has a huge collection of packages/classes. On current distributions I
always get confused by names like "felix" or "germonimo" which are not
know to me. So to avoid confusion and to be consistent with the other
programming languages, I suggest prefixing Java packages with "java-".

The specification above is modeled after the one for Python and Perl
packages.

As of now, gnu/packages/java.scm contains only four definitions (swt,
ant, incedtea-6 and icedtea-7), three of which are applications. So only
"swt" would be affected when introducing this *now*.

Comments are welcome.

-- 
Regards
Hartmut Goebel

| Hartmut Goebel          | h.goebel@crazy-compilers.com               |
| www.crazy-compilers.com | compilers which you thought are impossible |

Re: Proposal: Prefix "java-" for Java packages

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hartmut Goebel <h.goebel@crazy-compilers.com> writes:

> To avoid confusion and naming clashes with other programming languages,
> it's desirable that the name of a package for a Java package contains
> the word "java". If a project already contains the word java, we drop
> this; for instance, the module ffmpeg-java is packaged under the name
> java-ffmpeg.

I’m in favour of a prefix, although I don’t have any preference as to
what it should be named.

Note that we also have Java libraries in other modules, such as “htsjdk”
or “ngs-java” in the bioinformatics module.

~~ Ricardo

Re: Proposal: Prefix "java-" for Java packages

[Ludovic Courtès]

Ricardo Wurmus <ricardo.wurmus@mdc-berlin.de> skribis:

> Hartmut Goebel <h.goebel@crazy-compilers.com> writes:
>
>> To avoid confusion and naming clashes with other programming languages,
>> it's desirable that the name of a package for a Java package contains
>> the word "java". If a project already contains the word java, we drop
>> this; for instance, the module ffmpeg-java is packaged under the name
>> java-ffmpeg.
>
> I’m in favour of a prefix, although I don’t have any preference as to
> what it should be named.

I like this idea too, and “java-” sounds like the obvious prefix to me.

If there are no objections, you’re welcome to submit a patch, Hartmut!

Ludo’.

Re: Proposal: Prefix "java-" for Java packages

[Hartmut Goebel]

Am 14.04.2016 um 18:59 schrieb Ludovic Courtès:
> If there are no objections, you’re welcome to submit a patch, Hartmut!
Fine, I'll do.

Does anyone have a better example than "ffmpeg-java" (which I more or
less invented)?

-- 
Regards
Hartmut Goebel

| Hartmut Goebel          | h.goebel@crazy-compilers.com               |
| www.crazy-compilers.com | compilers which you thought are impossible |