First of all, there are various naming style that existed in computing, but today I want to share with all of you a simple yet always happened to new designers and worpdress theme developer – the theme’s folder naming restrictions.

I had an experience of exploring this restriction while I was developing my current theme. The rule is simple:

• Do not put symbol in the early or anywhere in the name.
  Eg: $blockpress, block*press, blockpress#
• Do not put hyphen (-) in the middle of the name. Use underscore ( _ ) instead.
  Eg: block-press, blo-ck-pr-ess
• Do not put space(s) within the name. Use underscore ( _ ) instead.
  Eg: Block Press, Block PR Ess

Why not?

Because, all the above will prohibit you from viewing you theme from within administrator, and this is not friendly for the users. However, you can still activate the theme and use it. The user will see an empty white box when they click on the theme’s thumbnail. Which later, they will label you as lousy a developer.

Moreover, they will start sending you emails, or comments asking you regarding this issue. And this is not a good practice of “Finalized Product”. If the theme is still in beta or alpha mode, they know that they’re testing or using an uncompleted product.

Therefore, make sure you run a full debugging processes onto your project. This will prevent future problems and shame. Moreover, your client will be happy and promote you to other clients as well because your product shows excellent performance.

UPDATE

Justkhai : Why we can’t use dash (-) while we can use the underscore ( _ )?

Xun : It is because, probably dash (-) is consider as a symbol, while underscore is consider as a part from variable naming, which is acceptable in programming world, and in this case, the PHP language. Hope this answers you, Justkhai.