[ET Trac] [Einstein Toolkit] #1338: Rename Carpet output files

[Einstein Toolkit]

#1338: Rename Carpet output files
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  Reporter:  eschnett  |       Owner:  eschnett
      Type:  defect    |      Status:  new     
  Priority:  major     |   Milestone:          
 Component:  Carpet    |     Version:          
Resolution:            |    Keywords:          
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Comment (by barry.wardell):

 Replying to [comment:4 knarf]:
 > Macs having a much wider audience in our community compared to Windows,
 and changing the default for them too would create confusion about what
 the expected file names of Carpet look like. From what I read the only
 problem in MacOS is the Finder, which shows colons as slashes but treats
 them as colons 'under the hood', is this correct? I guess Mac users have
 to deal with that bug even outside of Carpet (or better, complain to
 Apple).

 'Only' Finder means a lot more than you might think. The implementation is
 at quite a low level so it also implies every open, save, etc. dialog box
 and probably most other GUIs. As a general rule, anything that uses
 Apple's APIs uses slashes and anything UNIX uses colons. Yes, it's a bit
 of a mess but I don't think this is a bug. It is a deliberate choice in
 how to handle the transition from older versions of Mac OS in the most
 backwards compatible way possible.

 > Does the output work on Macs (I guess so, a lot of people use it)? Do
 script that use colons work? If the display in the Finder is the only
 problem, is this really such a big problem? Did anyone actually complain
 or file a bug report with Apple?

 Yes, it does work in the sense that it doesn't impact me. But I'd imagine
 it could be very confusing to new users to see the same file with
 different names depending on the context. For example, in Mathematica you
 need to use colons with the Import command, but the file browser shows
 slashes.

 Replying to [comment:7 knarf]:
 > If the current default on Macs is really "a very bad idea", then we
 should probably really think about changing it - for all users, which
 would solve the Windows problem at the same time.

 I was really just trying to point out that there are other contexts beyond
 the "it doesn't work with Windows" case where one might want to avoid
 colons in filenames.

 > Both have advantages and disadvantages. Whether to choose a or b mainly
 depends on how much of a problem colons are on MacOS, and I am not the
 right person to be asked that question. So, if you use a Mac and read
 this: please speak up.

 As a general rule I try to avoid colons in filenames as it has caused me
 headaches in the past. In this particular case it doesn't really bother me
 since my analysis tools are not affected by the issue. The Windows and
 Samba problems are much more important reasons.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.einsteintoolkit.org/ticket/1338#comment:8>
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