Re: Should one adopt the tag naming convention of anexisting X

WIPO Standard ST.36, vocabulary for patent documents, uses hyphen separators rather than underscore or camel case.  Java developers have frequently complained of this, since the hyphen is apparently a reserved character in Java and their tools for automatically creating classes stumble over them when used in element names, requiring manual intervention, or other cleanup actions (so I’m told). 

 

Is the Java objection real?  Is there any real technical reason to prefer one over the other?

 Personally, I find hyphenated element names easier to read than camel case, and vastly easier to type than underscores. 

 

In general, I’m in the same camp as many others with regard to the source of element names: the business vocabulary takes precedence.  We also try to follow ISO 11179-5, but where there is the slightest chance the results will confuse or snag the business users, we break those rules without hesitation.