package naming for working directories, tarfiles and diff files

[Bill Mitchell <mitchell@mdd.comm.mot.com>]

I've been uncomfortable with the source package guidelines naming 
conventions for used in the packaging guidelines some time now.  I wonder 
how other maintainers feel about alternative naming conventions which 
would be more comfortable for me.

    current        alternative          description
    -------        -----------          -----------
1.  package/       package/             original package after tar extraction
2.  package.orig/                       original package renamed
3.  package/       package.debian/      original package modified for debian
4.  package.diff   package.debian.diff  diff -r -c -P output
5.  package.tar    package.debian.tar   tarfile of debian version of package

note:  "package" is a package name of the form name-revision.revision,
       or whatever other naming convention might be appropriate for any
       particular source package.

As I see it, these alternative naming conventions have two advantages:

1.  They reinforce the idea that the debian package is an offshoot of
    a centrally-maintained package with wider distribution.

2.  If the original tarfile is extracted a second time, it just overwrites
    the files it produced on the original extraction instead of clobbering
    the files with the debian changes.

Also, I think it would be worthwhile to make the tarfile from the parent 
directory with the command "tar cvf package.debian.diff package.debian".
That is, include the diff file in the tarfile.  This isn't covered one 
way or the other in the packaging guidelines I've seen.

Comments?