[thelist] cross-platform file names

[Shawn K. Quinn]

On Wed, 2005-04-20 at 08:13 -0400, Fred D Yocum wrote:
> When naming files for the Web we have always had a policy of only
> using 
> alphanumeric characters,underscores and hyphens. This is to avoid 
> introducing cross-platform file naming problems (certain flavours of
> Linux/Unix don't allow the 'space' character in file names)

Be specific: which flavors? I have yet to have it be a serious issue on
any distribution of GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, or OpenBSD. It's possible some
outdated  proprietary Unix variants had a problem with it, but I've
always been able to access a file named with a space by escaping the
space. That said, that doesn't mean I think spaces in filenames are a a
good idea at all.

> This is now being challenged by a young upstart Web master who likes
> spaces in his filenames particularly for files that are going to be
> downloaded onto 
> people's desktops.

First, where the file goes is up to the user, not the Webmaster. Second,
downloading files onto desktops is primarily a Windows thing to begin
with, and I don't think it's a common practice even there. It's
certainly not common on MacOS or any Unix-like system.

-- 
Shawn K. Quinn <skquinn at speakeasy.net>