#1338: Rename Carpet output files -----------------------+---------------------------------------------------- Reporter: eschnett | Owner: eschnett Type: defect | Status: new Priority: major | Milestone: Component: Carpet | Version: Resolution: | Keywords: -----------------------+----------------------------------------------------
Comment (by knarf):
Please don't get angry. I didn't intend to confuse or flame. I already agreed that something needs to be done on Windows, and at the time changing the colon to another character seemed like a good idea - mostly because there are not that many Windows users anyway, which would limit the confusion different file names would have on users. I actually did suggest changing the default, but only on platforms where the 'usual' default doesn't work (only Windows at the time) - meaning to have a platform-dependent default.
Now, if Macs seems to have problems with colons too, this becomes an entirely different issue - again, mainly because unlike Windows, Macs enjoy a broader usage among the Carpet users. So, if we tackle the problem for Windows users, we might think about Macs at the same time too. Having a different default on Macs and other Unixes doesn't sound like a good idea. 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.
This leaves us with two options: a) Only change the default on Windows to something non-colon b) Change the filenames for all users
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.
Speaking about colons and problems: using another character would make life in unix also *a bit* easier, because colons need to be escaped in a bash-like shell as well. That's not a big problem, especially with auto- complete, but maybe a small incentive.
If another character is chosen (and at least for Windows that seems likely), it should follow the quite restricted Microsoft rules (e.g., http://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/windows/desktop/aa365247%28v=vs.85%29.aspx).