Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!helios.ee.lbl.gov!ucsd!ames!killer!bobc
From: bobc@killer.Dallas.TX.US (Bob Calbridge)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Funny Characters in filenames?!?!?!?!
Summary: using the alt key
Message-ID: <7519@killer.Dallas.TX.US>
Date: 12 Mar 89 17:24:35 GMT
References: <56@a.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu> <8956@dasys1.UUCP>
Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas
Lines: 22


 In article <56@a.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu> manager@a.coe.wvu.wvnet.edu (Cris Fuhrman, Systems Manager) writes:
>On one of the hard-disk machines here at school, we have some files and 
>directories with funny-characters (smiley faces, hearts, diamonds, etc.) in 
>the file names.  How do I delete these files?  How did they get there?  


How about using the alt key?  For the practice, from your DOS prompt hold down
the ALT key and enter some digits from 0 to 255 then release the ALT key.  You
will see the extended ASCII representation of that value.  For example, if you
hold the ALT and enter "1" (without quotes) then release the ALT key you will
get a smiley face.   Try this for numbers greater than 127 to see some of the
graphics characters.  I've used this trick for the fun of it and some software
companies apparently use it to keep some files from being deleted.  If the file
name has a decimal 255 embedded in it, it is still recognized as a valid ASCII
character by DOS.  However, the character prints out as a blank, meaning that
you have to do something like type in the beginning of the file name then hold
the ALT key while entering "255" then hit your return.  
BTW______I should have mentioned that this is only possible using the numeric 
keypad, NOT the number keys on the QWERTY keyboard.

Bob