The best practice that those of us who have worked with thousands of files
in a given project is in fact the use of an alphanumeric vocabulary as you
surmise tango. Think of this task as designing a schema for part numbers for
example. Each alpha character may represents a classification and the
numeric characters can represent categories or other properties of the
subject matter each image conveys.
The shortcoming of this approach is the fact that AA101 has no immediate
meaning to a human. Furthermore, two AA's becomes redundant when using the
schema to sort or use code to process. We usually restrict to one character
per classification where AC is okay as C would be a child of A. Clear as
mud?
To reduce ambiguity we can also use the alphanumeric as a prefix to a helper
vocabulary that is delineated by an underscore i.e. A101_MachineParts, or
A101_WomensClothing where the helper vocabulary represents categorical
constructs. Circumstances may require applying the same approach to your
directory naming heirarchy.
The most important aspect is developing a vocabulary that is well thought
out. Planning is critical. Then implement a consistent and replicable
vocabulary.
This is how the big boys do it.
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<%= Clinton Gallagher, "Twice the Results -- Half the Cost"
Architectural & e-Business Consulting -- Software Development
NET
[email protected]
URL
http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/