Notations and common conventions
================================
+.. index:: single: File (naming)
+.. index:: single: File (type)
+
In all this documentation, we use standard notations of linear algebra, data
assimilation (as described in [Ide97]_) and optimization.
-For algebraic formulations, vectors are written horizontally or vertically
-without making a difference. Matrices are written either normally, or with a
-condensed notation, consisting in the use of a space to separate the values,
-and a "``;``" to separate the rows of the matrix, in a continuous line.
+For algebraic formulations, **vectors** are written horizontally or vertically
+without making a difference. **Matrices** can be written either normally as a
+serie of number series, either in text condensed notation, consisting in the
+use of a space to separate the values, and a "``;``" to separate the rows of
+the matrix, in a continuous line.
-Files can be indicated by an absolute or relative path. For some old or shared
-file systems, the full name with the path must not contain more than 256
-characters. In the case of Python files, it is advisable not to use dots in the
-name apart for the extension, to prevent difficulties in using it that are
-complicated to diagnose.
+**Files** can be indicated by an absolute or relative path. For some old or
+shared file systems, the full name, including the path, must not contain more
+than 256 characters. In the case of Python files, it is advisable not to use
+dots in the name apart for the extension, to prevent difficulties in using it
+that are then complicated to diagnose.
-File type and naming conventions rely heavily on the extensions of the files
-themselves. Some of them are briefly specified here, without being exhaustive:
+**File type and naming conventions** rely heavily on the extensions of the
+files themselves. Some of them are briefly specified here, without being
+exhaustive:
-- extension ``.py`` : data or commands text file of Python source type
+- extension ``.py`` : data or commands text file of Python type
- extension ``.comm`` : commands text file of ADAO EFICAS type
- extension ``.xml`` : data text file of XML type or commands (for YACS, not exclusive)
- extension ``.txt`` : data text file with space separator
- extension ``.npz`` : data binary file of type Numpy multi-variables
- extension ``.sdf`` : data binary file of type Scientific Data Format
+For the use of some of these files, one can refer to the keyword "*DataFile*"
+as :ref:`section_ref_entry_types_info`.
+
.. ------------------------------------ ..
.. include:: snippets/Header2Algo07.rst
