From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 9 02:19:58 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 372CD106566B for ; Wed, 9 Nov 2011 02:19:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ED56C8FC12 for ; Wed, 9 Nov 2011 02:19:57 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-104-16.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.104.16]) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 65E543D37B; Wed, 9 Nov 2011 03:19:56 +0100 (CET) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id pA92Jtw6003571; Wed, 9 Nov 2011 03:19:56 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2011 03:19:55 +0100 From: Polytropon To: "Conrad J. Sabatier" Message-Id: <20111109031955.bc090847.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20111108195804.6dfa47c8@cox.net> References: <20111108184236.3a78ebf6@cox.net> <201111090117.pA91HRDo065662@mail.r-bonomi.com> <20111108195804.6dfa47c8@cox.net> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Robert Bonomi Subject: Re: "Unprintable" 8-bit characters X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:19:58 -0000 On Tue, 8 Nov 2011 19:58:04 -0600, Conrad J. Sabatier wrote: > So, what would be the safest bet as far as the most "universal" > representation for these characters? Something I've long wondered > about when I've e-mailed people and copied/pasted these characters (are > they really seeing what I'm seeing?). :-) With lots of experience in "how not to do it", I would like to suggest the following: Use US-ASCII letters only. This makes _sure_ they will display correctly everywhere and even on ultra-worst conditions (e. g. you are at a real serial console, a real DEC vt100). Filenames like kloesze_mit_muesli_foerdern_baerenhunger.mp3 can be processed by _any_ ls or mailer program. There is no need to worry about... hmmm... do they have the same character settings that I use? Do they have a font installed that can show the file names properly? Rules: Substitute umlauts properly (*e). Substitute ß to sz ("teletype convention"). Remove accents or other marks completely, as well as "strokes through characters" or similar typographical specialities. If you can, use lowercase only. No spaces, use _ instead. Avoid any other special characters. Make everything plain ASCII, and you can _still_ easily get the meaning. The file system ITSELF doesn't care for the meaning of the characters. SAVING them and DISPLAYING them are two fully different things. Nobody stops you from making filenames like öÜÖß߀ٵ³¼`łøæſđ̣ĸ»¢.mp3, but they can cause trouble you can't predict. You _never_ know... -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...