How to choose a name for projects in solution?

Question

Maybe that's silly, but I'm confused again when trying to find appropriate names for my projects.

I have a solution with two projects. First project is a library, which will be used by other libraries in the future, for creating plugins for my app. Second project is a exe, which uses first project to create GUI and do some stuff, eg. load plugins.

In similar situation, when one project is a dll and second is an exe, how do you choose names for each project?

Lets say, that I would like to peek a name GraphDemonstration. The exe should be GraphDemonstrationGUI and dll - GraphDemonstration? But exe is not just a GUI. So maybe GraphDemonstration for exe and GraphDemonstrationLib for dll?

I have had similar situation in the past. Maybe there is some kind of naming convention? I don't even know if my "problem" is related to VS only.

Answer 1

If this is library of main class CSomeClass I name project SomeClassLibrary. For projects smillary but non from main object.

Answer 2

GraphDemonstration for your EXE is fine because it describes the purpose of the EXE. However, you said the library will be used by other projects later so the "GraphDemonstration" part of GraphDemonstrationLibrary may not be the best choice. Perhaps GraphLibrary, or GraphHelper, or maybe more specific depending on what is actually included in the library. For example, if the library handles instantiating an Excel object to generate a graph you could call it ExcelGraphHelper.dll.