Via research!rsc, I came across The Hideous Name. Although it's mainly about file and email names, this paragraph was interesting.
Although this syntax may seem unnecessarily cumbersome, it has a precedent: it is analogous to expressions in programming languages. Consider a C expression such as *structure[index].field->ptr. If * were postfix and / the only dereferencing operator, the expression might be written structure/index/field/ptr/. Functionally-minded programmers might use the notation contents(ptr(field(index(structure)))). (A single character cannot be used in C because it could not distinguish X[Y] and X->Y, with X a structure pointer and Y an integer or structure element respectively, but this ambiguity could be eliminated in a different language.) C and VMS use syntax to distinguish the types of the components of a name. Instead, the UNIX file system deliberately hides the distinctions. Aside from the obvious advantages such as simplicity of syntax and the usurping of only a single character, the uniformity also makes the name space easier to manipulate: the mount system call aliases a disk and a directory.
Do any languages use a uniform naming system for all entities?
[Edit: fixed the links]
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