Re: [9fans] Re: blanks in file names

[Dave <dave@dave.tj>]

If you're going to rewrite the UI programs (like ls) to print filenames
in human-readable format, you'll need to make an option in each program
that outputs filenames to make it output the names in human-readable or
other-program-readable format ... yucky. . .

 - Dave


Jim Choate wrote:
> 
> 
> On Wed, 10 Jul 2002, Dave wrote:
> 
> > If I had to vote a priori, blanks would certainly be a no-go for
> > filenames.  However, the pressure cooker has already burst, and our
> > chicken is headed straight towards the ceiling.  Getting rid of spaces in
> > filenames is not much of an option, if we want to be able to get along
> > in the wide world of non-space-restricted systems.
> 
> Um, strictly speaking for most OS'es (and logically in general) the
> 'string' that represents the filename canonicaly -should- be (usually) ""
> delimited.
> 
> In other words,
> 
> ls filename.foo
> 
> should really be,
> 
> ls "filename.foo"
> 
> or perhaps,
> 
> ls "file/"Bill/".foo"
> 
> The fact that the OS allows one to drop them (assuming you don't use
> things like blanks in filenames) is really a courtesy of the shell
> implimentation. That's where it should stay. Why the filesystem would
> -ever- need the filename for internal operations would, at least to my
> mind, be a major error in implimentation. Other than in 'friendly name'
> situations (ie UI related) the system should be oblivious of the filename.
> 
> If it's a valid character in the character set, it should be allowed in a
> string (except for logical issues - eg printing some non-printable) should
> print some sort of symbol allowing one to recognize this. This
> 'conversion' should also stay strictly in the UI related code. To do
> otherwise raises a host of issues about side effects and special cases w/
> regard to sting handling libraries. To not allow spaces in filenames only
> makes the world more complicated. It also destroys a layer of generality,
> and that is -almost always- a BAD thing.
> 
> With respect to filenames, it's a string of -reasonably- unique (re issues
> of location and such) 1's and 0's to the OS. It doesn't really 'mean'
> anything to the OS::File System. It's the User::UI that it matters to.
> 
> User::UI::OS::File System
> 
> Leave the problem where it belongs, in the cli/shell.
> 
> 
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