Naming Conventions

Post date: Sep 9, 2010 3:25:13 PM

You will find as we get into more complex designs, that naming conventions (or how we name files, objects, components, pieces, etc.) will be critical in order to maintain our sanity. Here are my expectations and some recommendations on how to create a naming convention that will ensure that we don't get too confused.

• All classwork turned into me needs to follow the following convention:

First name, Last Initial-Name of file

For example, my Chapter 2 project would be called JohnM-Ch2_project.

Why did I use an underscore instead of a space? Old school programmers were constrained in their naming conventions because certain environments allowed only 8 characters with a three character file extension. Space characters could not be recognized and so programmers used an underscore in order to combine words.

• Naming conventions for Game Maker involve having a descriptor for what you are working with. For example, a sprite for a dragon might be called sprite_dragon or spr_dragon. Whichever you choose, please ensure that all sprites (or objects, or sounds, etc.) use the same abbreviation.