Re: web file naming conventions

[Linda Sherman <linsherm -at- GTE -dot- NET>]

John Cornellier wrote:
>
> (cross-posted to webmonster)
>
> Is there any advantage to naming web files index.html, aside
> from the fact that you shorten URLs slightly?

I think you'll find most of your questions about this answered in any
good book on web development, but I'll take a shot at them anyway.

> I suppose if
> people edit the URL in the Address box on the browser, e.g. to
> go back, then it's handy if each dir contains a viewable file,
> rather than displaying a 404 or dir listing.

I always put an index.htm file in each sub-directory for just that
reason, and this page is always a table of contents for the rest of that
directory. On large sites, it simplifies navigation problems. This is
assuming that you organize your subdirectories according to topic.

> Is there any technical advantage to using .html or .htm, other
> than that .html is more cool?

This used to be server-specific, but any more, just about any server
software worth the CD it's shipped on should be able to handle either
extension, and should be able to translate one extension to the other on
the fly (assuming the administrator has it set up to do so). I use .htm
for no particular reason other than it's one less character to type and
I'm lazy.

> Are there other filenames that a browser will open if you
> point it to a dir?

There's no standard other than index.htm(l) that I know of, but some
servers allow you to name a default.

> I just tested it and index.html, index.htm,
> and home.html can all be default files, with precedence in the
> order I gave, where they are all in the same dir.

"home" is supported by some servers but not all. And some servers allow
you to specify a search list. However, I'm not sure I see the benefit in
using anything other than "index".

> Any general comments on naming conventions for sites?

For individual files, or for the site itself?

For files, I always stick to the old 8.3 DOS format. There are still
people using DOS browsers and you can cause them problems if you have
"blahblah1.htm" and "blahblah2.htm" in the same directory. Within that
limitation, I try to use something resembling recognizable and
meaningful English.

Lin
--
Linda K. Sherman <linsherm -at- gte -dot- net>
Computer programming, technical writing, web development
phone: 1-727-842-6756  fax: 1-727-842-6853

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