I want to add that this change would be implemented in the same way as previous changes: There would be a parameter that chooses which file name format to use, and the default setting for this parameter would (at least initially) be backward compatible, i.e. one would explicitly need to set this parameter to see this change.

Regarding the new file name, I prefer a single dot "." instead of the double colon "::". A single dot is commonly used to access fields in a structure or member in a class, so that thorn.variable or thorn.group make sense. I don't see a reason to use two separating characters. Cactus chose :: because this is what C++ uses for namespaces; if we want to follow Java or Python instead, we would use a single dot instead.

-erik

On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 9:25 PM, Frank Loeffler knarf@cct.lsu.edu wrote:

Hi,

Several authors debated the plan to change the colons "::" in especially Carpet output file names to something else. One stated reason is the incompatibility of this and Windows, Samba and related systems, another is inconveniences these cause for MacOS users.

After considering several options we seem to converge on a replacement of "::" by "--" (double minus signs) as delimiter (see https://trac.einsteintoolkit.org/ticket/1338 for the full discussion).

This would, for example change a filename from

hydrobase::w_lorentz.maximum.asc

to

hydrobase--w_lorentz.maximum.asc

However small this change is, it would affect the vast majority of users. Thus, we would like to get feedback before actually going forward. So: if you like to have your opinion heard, now is the best time to accomplish that before it is "too late" (whatever direction it might be).

Frank

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