Don't include empty files

[waldyrious]

Wouldn't it be better to include a list in the README of formats/languages for which the minimal file is an empty file?

[Prinzhorn]

Then there would be two sources of truth. It's pretty straight forward to find the file you're looking for in the main list. A second list of empty files would require you to know that there is such a list and scroll down to the README to actually read it.

[bmix]

What about changing "smallest possible syntactically valid files" to "smallest possible syntactically valid files, that make sense" ? Now "sense" in such a minimalist context is highly subjective. But what about something, that also defines the "spirit" of the filetype, illustrates it?

[ross-spencer]

As of September 2019, the empty sources list appears as follows:

-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 awk.awk
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 brainfuck.bf
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 c.h
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 chicken.chicken
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 clojure.clj
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 clojure.cljc
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 clojurescript.cljs
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 coffeescript.coffee
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 crystal.cr
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 css.css
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 doscommand-empty.com
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 elixir.ex
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 groovy.groovy
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 .htaccess
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 javascript.js
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 jess.clp
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 lua.lua
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 markdown.md
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 nim.nim
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 ocaml.ml
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 opa.opa
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 perl.pl
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 php.php
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 python.py
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 ruby.rb
-rwxr-xr-x  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 shell.sh
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 swift.swift
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 toml.toml
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 typescript.ts
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 vertex-shader.vs
-rw-r--r--  1 user-name user-name     0 Sep 16 12:12 yaml.yml

Zero-byte files with just an extension don't make a lot of sense in the sort of testing workflows I'm following, but will consider options for filtering those. I would query their syntactic correctness as they contain no syntax per se. But I'm just registering that perspective and noting it would help to manage them differently here. That being said, love this repository, and hope to find some samples to submit.