Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!att-ih!chinet!les
From: les@chinet.UUCP (Leslie Mikesell)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Kernel Hacks & Weird Filenames
Message-ID: <5070@chinet.UUCP>
Date: 1 May 88 19:46:32 GMT
References: <13041@brl-adm.ARPA> <4895@chinet.UUCP> <574@minya.UUCP>
Reply-To: les@chinet.UUCP (Leslie Mikesell)
Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix
Lines: 33

In article <574@minya.UUCP> jc@minya.UUCP (John Chambers) writes:
>> it is pretty silly to allow non-printable characters in a filename.
>
>The problem with this argument is:  Just what is a printable character?
>....These are added to the usual
>ASCII by using the 128 unused codes starting at 0x80.

I should have been more specific.  Characters above the ASCII defined
range don't concern me.  I can avoid ever accidently putting one into
a filename by setting all my equipment to ignore parity.  What does
bother me is allowing characters that have an ASCII-defined meaning
other than a printable character to be in filenames.  This means the
values below a space which includes all sorts of device controls that
I would prefer not to happen accidently.

> Or maybe I
>have one of the new NLS terminals that put out 2-byte codes for some
>characters. 

Great.. Do you expect the kernal (and everything else that has fixed
length buffers) to magically accomodate the extra characters
transparently?

>You may be part of the "English-only" crowd, but there are lots of us
>who aren't, and we badly need those extra character codes.  The fact
>that you can't type them on your silly ANSI terminal is of no concern
>to us.
>
Do your devices not require device control characters (carriage-return,
line-feed, form-feed, flow control, pad control, and the like?  Do you
like having them in filenames?

  Les Mikesell