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Subject:Re: File names in text From:Bev Parks <bparks -at- HUACHUCA-EMH1 -dot- ARMY -dot- MIL> Date:Sat, 25 Mar 1995 18:39:31 MST
Emily Skarzenski <71220 -dot- 341 -at- COMPUSERVE -dot- COM> wrote--
People keep talking about writing filenames in all caps and
discussing the aesthetics of all caps. How 'bout using small
caps? Of course you can't use them in ASCII text, but you can
in print and online docs. IMO, small caps are the perfect
answer for this--they retain *capital*ness, but are much less
visually instrusive than regular caps.
==================
In any text where you have a lot of capitalized words (file
names, acronyms, whatever), small caps is definitely the way to
go. Otherwise, the caps draw way too much attention to
themselves.
For file names, many people brought up the fact that UNIX is
case sensitive, thus FILE.TXT, File.txt, FiLe.txt, ad nauseum,
would all be different files. In this case I would probably
choose an italic font for the filenames. It retains their case
sensitivity, yet makes them consistently distinct from the
surrounding text.
As best I can remember, the original question on this discussion
of file names specifically concerned ASCII text; in which case,
all these fancy type effects would not be available. If the
context is strictly DOS, then the all caps method is still
preferable over initial caps (IMO). For UNIX file names, I liked
the suggestion someone made to not use any special treatment and
follow the file name with the word "file" if it wasn't obvious
from the context.
=*= Beverly Parks =*= bparks -at- huachuca-emh1 -dot- army -dot- mil =*=
=*= "These opinions are mine, not my employer's." =*=
=*= =*= =*=
