Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!jfw@mit-ccc@mit-mc From: jfw@mit-ccc@mit-mc@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Funny characters in filenames Message-ID: <3524@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Wed, 27-Jul-83 20:33:05 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.3524 Posted: Wed Jul 27 20:33:05 1983 Date-Received: Fri, 29-Jul-83 06:43:50 EDT Lines: 14 Gee, why don't we just go back to radix-50(8) filenames? The problem is not excessive generality (gee, why don't we refer to files by their filesystem number/inode number), but the poor state of tools which accidentally create file names that other poorly designed tools cannot handle or mishandle. File names need not be confusing; Berkeley's `ls' can optionally show ``bizarre'' characters in octal escape form (perhaps, in dumping to tty's, it should normally do so?); perhaps the shell should accept octal escapes. (Let us defer the human engineering aspects of /bin/sh for a later date.) Restricting the operating system to the point where mistakes are impossible is, I feel, the wrong attitude (ask Kurt Goedel about it, too). Rather, let us endeavor to ensure that programs utilize the generality well. We'll never eliminate bugs, no matter how few characters are in the space of file-name characters...