Re: [9fans] spaces in filenames

[Michael Baldwin <m@orb.sh>]

> On Unix, part of the problem is scripts that use $* when they should
> use "$@"

yeah, so fix them, if it's so easy.  are there lots of these around?  i
haven't noticed.

> but the need to quote file names containing spaces interactively is an
> on-going nuisance.

i guess if you think 'quoting' is a nuisance.  yes, you have to quote
spaces in shell args.  i also have to quote '=' in rc args, and i have
to quote ( ) { } * ? and a bunch of other characters.  so what?

> If you're going to allow spaces, then why not allow tabs? ... why not
> newline ... why discriminate against NUL ...

because filenames are supposed to be printable "labels" for things.
tabs are control characters to adjust the "carriage", like CR and NL
are.  NUL is a control character.  space is just a space, and is thought
of as printable.  putting spaces in labels is not a radical idea.  ever
label a paper folder "Mom's recipes"?  i don't feel obligated to put an
underscore in there instead.  and let me tell you, her stuffed peppers
are to die for.

and i've already said it is very useful to have characters that are
guaranteed to be useful as separators.  slashes are used for pathname
element separation, and for the same reason, it seems a good idea to
have a character that always works as an element separator.

so stop confusing the issue.  i'm talking about space.  JUST SPACE.  not
tab, newline, nul, or slash.  i have ALREADY given my reasons for not
allowing those (they are non-printable, and it is good to have reliable
separators).  this is about SPACE ONLY.  the only reason you've given to
hate spaces is shell sloppiness.  we even have the nice new quoted
string functions if you want to use them.

> We could also adopt another Mac OS tradition, case-insensitive file
> names.

this is more questionable.  but in the case of inferno, which has to
live on top of these other systems (windoze does this too), one cannot
simply ignore it.  "mv A a" on inferno used to delete your poor file "A"
instead of move it.  oops.  and i notice that the shell(s) in mac os x
are case-sensitive when using glob matching.

> Pretty soon our file names will be as ungodly a stew as anything ever
> parsed by MVS or VMS.

oh please.  allowing the use of space somehow makes filenames a stew?
give me a break.