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002_snake_case_is_preferred.md
The choice between snake_case 🐍, camelCase 🐪, and kebab-case 🍢 is largely arbitrary and based on personal preference. It is useful to pick a default case style so that effort isn't wasted in deliberating about which one to use, and so that documents are easier to read. Mixing case styles can lead the reader to believe that there is different meaning associated with the cases because in some contexts (like programming languages) different case styles do imply different meanings. Sticking with one case style removes that unnecessary ambiguity.
An argument was made that we should choose kebab-case because it is the most common style. It is more often true that underscores are forbidden or that underscores are the less-commonly-used separator.
No argument was made in favor of camelCase.
In the Platform Engineering Team at the time of this proposal, members of the team either have an active preference for snake_case or don't care.
Because one cannot assume that snake_case 🐍 will always be allowed, a hierarchy is needed.
The hierarchy of separator options:
- snake_case 🐍
- kebab-case 🍢
- camelCase 🐪
kebab-case 🍢 should be preferred when the string will be used in a url. Examples of strings that should be in kebab-case 🍢:
- github repository names
- github branch names
camelCase 🐪 should only be used when other conventions call for it (ex: ruby class names)
Separator style mixing should be avoided. (ex: unless other conventions call
for it don't do something like kebab-snake_camelCase)
Approved
| Date | Summary |
|---|---|
| January 23, 2023 | Drafted on 2023-01-23 |
| January 25, 2023 | Drafted on 2023-01-25 |
- It will be straight-forward to decide what separator to use
- Readers will not be distracted by the arbitrary mixing of styles
- Future members of this team who prefer kebab-case or camelCase may be sad about this decision