Libraries and naming Conventions for Subroutines

Routines will be put into a small number of libraries. There will be one library for each monolith or package, into which the component applications of the monolith and subroutines specific to these applications will be placed. There will also be a general library, ASTLIB, into which routines that are called by more than one application will be placed. In order to avoid naming conflicts between subroutines belonging to different applications in a monolith the following conventions should be observed:

• Subroutines not specific to an application will reside in the general library, ASTLIB and will be named as follows:

                 prefix_routinename
  

  The prefix should be chosen from the standard list given in AST_LIB:PREFIX.LIS Most routines fall into an obvious category e.g. HDX_ routines for general HDS file handling utilities, BDA_ for binned data access or LIST_ for handling list structures. If a routine does not obviously belong in any category then it should have a prefix of UTIL_. With care these can be kept to a minimum.

• Actual application routines in a monolith or package will be put in the monolith library and called by the application name.

                 e.g. EVBIN, BINSUBSET
  

• Where a subroutine or function is specific and subordinate only to one application or routine then its name should be

                 applicationname_subroutine 
                             or
                 routinename_subroutine
  

In all of the above cases 'routinename' and 'subroutine' should be alphanumeric only and should be kept to a reasonable length of no more than 12 characters.