Q:

Coincidence or rule?

I was reading about Assemblies (modules, which Microsoft CLR works with). The Assembly contains so called Manifest, which by definition describes a set of files in the Assembly.
I know that Android applications also contain a file called Manifest, which also describes a set of files contained in the application.
Is this simply a coincidence? Or are there some commonly accepted rules in software development to name "special" files?

A:

So you can mark this one as answered, these three comments accurately summarize things:
Baqueta's comment:

I'm pretty sure the terminology comes from the term shipping manifest, which wikipedia 
describes as: "Manifest, a document listing the cargo, passengers, and crew of a ship, 
aircraft, or vehicle, for the use of customs and other officials."

Joachim Sauer's comment:

As far as I know Java was the first one to call it "manifest" (at least of the three 
that where mentioned). And since it's a fitting name (similar to a shipping manifest, 
it describes the content of a package), others just used the same term for similar files.

MattDavey's comment:

It's neither a coincidence nor a rule, just a good descriptive word to capture a concept.
It's the same reason words like 'factory', 'facade', 'token', 'agent' are ubiquitous in 
software development. 

