{"id":397,"date":"2017-07-05T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/?p=397"},"modified":"2020-05-06T14:28:01","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T14:28:01","slug":"name-it-for-what-it-does","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/blog\/2017\/07\/name-it-for-what-it-does\/","title":{"rendered":"Name it for what it does"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A lesson re-learned in naming GitHub repos <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As part of the Corporate Design sprint<\/a>, we had need to set up a GitHub team and repositories to home and share work on the EMBL Design Language and Design Lab (more on what those are in a future post).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an abstract task, it\u2019s easy. Except what to name the team? What to name the repositories?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

There’s only one small initial constraint in no spaces allowed (and please: no insane namesoframinallthewordstogether). Instead we’ll use dashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most obvious choice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team: EMBL
Repositories:
– Design-Language
– Design-Lab<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Easy!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course it isn\u2019t that simple<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The GitHub name “EMBL” is taken by an apparent squatter<\/a>. But that’s perhaps for the best as whatever lives at \u201cGitHub.com\/EMBL\u201d would seem to not only apply to all of EMBL, but contain all of EMBL\u2019s GitHub repositories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about \u201cEMBL Communications\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team: EMBL-Communications
Repositories:
– Design-Language
– Design-Lab<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not fantastic either, EMBL-Communications implies this something that is applicable to only the Strategy & Communications team<\/a>, that name also implies the repository is something other teams cannot<\/em> contribute to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s the EMBL Design Language<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Instead, name the team for it\u2019s purpose: the EMBL Design Language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we\u2019ve seen in this week\u2019s sprint, getting away from organisational division naming toward functional naming is both intuitive and self-limiting. It\u2019s the same issues we\u2019ve uncovered in branding exercises, it\u2019s less about a word and more about meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Github.com\/embl-design-language<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re looking for the EMBL Design Language this is clear, obvious, non-political.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Name the son in relation to the father<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With the team name settled, we now need a pattern for repository naming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team: EMBL-Design-Language
Repositories:
– Design-Language
– Design-Lab<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s weird to call the repository \u201cDesign Language\u201d and not \u201cEMBL Design Language\u201d. However, using the latter gives us a team\/repo namespace of \u201cembl-design-language\/embl-design-language\u201d. What a redundant mouth and eyeful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, we\u2019ll just do:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Not so bad. Job done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Then along comes a colleague who asks a reasonable question, obliterating tunnel logic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a very good point. \u201cDesign Language\u201d is too close to the proper name and looks incorrect when not used in reference to the full \u201cembl-design-language\u201d team name. And we need to be clear it\u2019s not \u201cdesign language\u201d but the EMBL Design Language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Once again we have to learn the lesson: don’t name for the organisational structure, name it for what it is<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GitHub team is the EMBL-Design-Language and the repositories are facilitating it: sprint planning, an \u201cabout\u201d  landing page, a collaborative \u201clab\u201d, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team: EMBL-Design-Language
Repositories:
– sprint-planning
– about
– lab<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The intuitive can be easy to forget: unless you\u2019re trying to differentiate from peers, call a wheel a wheel. Only if you\u2019re competing against another wheel, then call it the \u201cFirestone TZ300 205\/55R16 91 V\u201d, whatever that is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lesson re-learned in naming GitHub repos  As part of the Corporate Design sprint, we had need to set up a GitHub team and repositories to home and share work on the EMBL Design Language and Design Lab (more on what those are in a future post). As an abstract task, it\u2019s easy. Except what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[468,458],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-brand","tag-design"],"acf":[],"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.svg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":585,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions\/585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397"},{"taxonomy":"embl_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/communications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/embl_taxonomy?post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}