FilenameBear: default naming convention should be language specific in some cases

[jayvdb]

Each language has different naming conventions that are very widely accepted.

• python: snake
• javascript: snake with hyphens
• java: pascal

If it is too controversial to add this to the bear, setting the better default could be done in coala-quickstart, or quickstart could detect the predominate style. This problem came up regularly in the GCI linting tasks done by Besut Kode Universitas participants.

[jayvdb]

See https://github.com/bartvandebiezen/file-name-conventions for some collected notes on this topic.

[meetmangukiya]

coala itself doesn't use snake case for filenaming 😟

[Makman2]

it's just about defaults, coala would obviously not stick to the python default :)

[yash-nisar]

So should we ask the user to define the file naming convention instead ? @jayvdb @Makman2

[Makman2]

this is already possible, though sometimes you want to rely on the default settings for your language without specifying the naming-convention-setting.

[meetmangukiya]

This can be better implemented and maintained this way IMO:

• Create a dict that contains extensions as keys and lambdas that accept filename as argument and return the standard naming convention compliant name
• Then try

try: 
  dict[extension](filename) 
except KeyError:
  # some nice message ?

This way there will be much less ifs if we want to add other language supports in future :)

[jayvdb]

The default is currently snake.

Ideally, we change the default file_naming_convention to None, but then we have two paths forward if the user doesnt set a value

1. use snake, but warn the user that they should be explicit, and allow auto for the user to explicitly request that we guess the right convention
2. guess the file_naming_convention, and fall back to snake if not known
3. guess the file_naming_convention, and skip the file if not known

Only the first is backwards compatible. The other two are reasonable changes of behaviour.

Can we think of any other strategies?

[Makman2]

maybe make use of the language setting?

[yash-nisar]

We have indirectly implemented 2 currently and the user can explicitly specify the file_naming_convention in the language setting of the .coafile. Now the main question is should we go with snake as the default one or set it to None ? CC @jayvdb @Makman2

[yash-nisar]

Can be merged after #1533

[Makman2]

I'm for setting it to None, it's imo the better default behaviour.

[yash-nisar]

Roger that @Makman2 :)

[Makman2]

1. use snake, but warn the user that they should be explicit, and allow auto for the user to explicitly request that we guess the right convention

I would use auto in that case, it confuses the user if we directly choose a non-fitting convention for the given language.