Dear Michael,
On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 2:10 AM, C. M. Sperberg-McQueen cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com wrote:
Using the GUI interface to BaseX 7.2, when I select Database / Open and Manage ..., I get a list of the databases I have built over the time I've been using BaseX. When I try to open the collection named MEP.bigbooks, though, I get an error box saying "Name 'MEP.bigbooks' is invalid."
some minor versions ago, we restricted names of database to letters, digits, dashes and underscores [1], mainly to avoid some existing ambiguities. The most prominent example was/is the .logs directory. It contains all log files while, in former times, it could also have pointed to a database. I mus confess that we have neglected legacy issues caused by this decision -- probably mainly because we've just not been aware of it.
It seems I have already answered your second question on the rules of database/collection names; some more information on how collections and databases can be addressed is given at [2]. Regarding your first question: yes, it is absolutely safe to simply rename database directories in your file system -- at least as long as you no BaseX instance is running, as the existing databases are cached in main memory after starting an instance.
Last but not least, I agree that it would probably be more intuitive if the database were not restricted to simple letters and digits. This may get possible at some stage, if we should decide to squeeze in another collection ↔ database layer.
Hope this helps! Some more nocturnal greetings, Christian
[1] http://docs.basex.org/wiki/Commands#Valid_Names [2] http://docs.basex.org/wiki/Databases