ROWA: Goddess of Filenames

by Ray Bryden on December 21st, 2010

The world will not end on December 21, 2012.  That momentous occasion will occur sometime the day before, on December 20, 2012. The story of this revelation begins with my breakfast, for when I was about to ingest my toasted English muffin, I noticed the image of a god-like figure in the toasted pattern of butter-infused crispy porosity. Though I marvelled at its comforting portrait, my stomach was even more curious about it, so I sent it down directly for its opinion. Immediately I was struck by its loud verbal proclamation: “ROOOOOWWWAAaaaa!” Thus, I concluded, I was possessed by the great goddess “ROWA.” I was taught to always trust my gut.

First among the things taught to me by ROWA – long may she be jam smeared – was proper order. ROWA hates entropy. As a result, I have taken to setting up a pattern for keeping my setups in order by using a naming convention which helps organize them very effectively. To accomplish this I have assigned each track a three-letter code (two for the track and one more for the layout). Adding the car to the name is optional, but is helpful if you are sharing setups and posting them online, as is the code which identifies the originator of the setup. There is also a one letter code which identifies the type of setup. Lastly there is a code which shows which version of the setup it is, as tweaking of the setups are common, and it is good to know which version is the newest.

So the ROWA filename format is defined thusly:

tt#_cc_f_iii_vXX.sto

Underscores are optional, but I’m old school and filenames with spaces still seem wrong to me. In any event, the “tt” is the track code, with the “#” depicting the specific layout, the “cc” is the car code, “f” represents the type of setup, and “vXX” depicts the version number. As an example, a new Silverstone (GP layout) qualifying setup for the Williams F1 created by me would be:

SSG_F1_Q_RHB_v01.sto

“SSG” = Silverstone / grand prix layout
“F1″ = Williams-Toyota FW 31 F1 car
“Q” = qualifying setup
“RHB” = my initials
“v01″ = my version of the setup. Tweaking the setup should be recorded somewhere, and the version code increased incrementally with each file save.

Using this format, it is easy to know exactly what each setup is for. You can try to resist the format, but considering the 10,000+ combinations of tracks, layouts, cars and setup types, you can either struggle with crazy long filenames or try to decipher some other dogma for keeping track of them. If you are vigilant, and ROWA looks kindly upon the vigilant, you can archive older versions of setups to another directory, to avoid unnecessary clutter in the setup folders. The bonus is you can and will use the same format for replays and even screenshots.

ROOOOWWWAAaaaa!

Now keep in mind that all setup files are only useful until December 20, 2012. According to ROWA, the world will end that day, and you should therefore relieve yourself of all worldly possessions beforehand. You can ship them directly to me and they will be offered as a sacrifice when the time is right.

ROOOOWWWWAAaaaaa! Excuse me – I must be hungry.