Norman
Tue Aug 26 20:42:31 CDT 2008
> The character Ã? takes two bytes in ANSI code page 932 (Shift-JIS).
Liar.
The character β (Greek) takes two bytes in ANSI code page 932 (Shift-JIS).
The character Ã? (German) does not exist.
When Windows 98 was able to rename files using Ã? in either the old name or
new name, that must have been a foreign language version of Windows 98. I
vaguely recall Japanese Windows 98 displaying s instead of Ã? in the
filename, but don't remember if the file was accessible. If that was a
short name then fat103.doc says the name should be displayed with _ instead
of Ã? and I think the file should be inaccessible. If that was a long name
then I haven't seen any spec (broken or otherwise).
I thought I had read somewhere that if a filename conforms to the 8.3 format
in the current system OEM code page then the file should be created on a FAT
partition with only a short name, no long name. But some versions of
Windows create it with a long name anyway. The long name is useful when the
partition is later viewed in some versions of Windows with a different
system OEM code page because the long name is stored in Unicode and is
converted on the fly. But I can't really figure out rules for when Windows
will create a long name and when it won't.
Of course if the filename doesn't conform to the 8.3 format then there will
always be a long name ... except for sometimes when there won't be a long
name, because Windows uses a reserved byte which fat103.doc says we should
ignore.
Looks like a lot more experiments are needed.
"Norman Diamond" <ndiamond@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
news:umveEn1BJHA.2712@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> The problem is identical in the root directory and in subdirectories.
> (This is FAT16 so the root directory is special in some ways, but this
> problem is the same in both kinds of directories.)
>
> The problem might be related to short filenames.
>
> 123456789s.txt --> 123456789Ã?.txt, no problem.
> 1234s6789s.txt --> 1234Ã?6789s.txt, no problem. This surprised me.
> 1234s.txt --> 1234Ã?.txt, fails.
>
> The character Ã? takes two bytes in ANSI code page 932 (Shift-JIS). When I
> have time I'll try to find out if the short name is really being stored
> correctly.
>
>
> "Pavel A." <pavel_a@12fastmail34.fm> wrote in message
> news:OsgRxnSBJHA.3400@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> "Alexander Grigoriev" <alegr@earthlink.net> wrote in message
>> news:eM$h#2MBJHA.1632@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>>> I'm guessing this is short filenames rearing their ugly head.
>>
>> This is easy to test. Just repeat this experiment in a new subdir. -- pa
>>
>>> The rename may work or not, depending how the dice rolls when they are
>>> generated. In different language versions of Windows (actually different
>>> current ANSI codepage) the mapping may differ, creating another
>>> uncertanity.
>>>
>>> "Norman Diamond" <ndiamond@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
>>> news:OO0D8kKBJHA.1012@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>>>> In my experience posting simple screenshots, you'll have to copy and
>>>> paste the following URL into the address bar of your browser. If you
>>>> just click on the link then Yahoo will display an error message instead
>>>> of the image.
>>>>
>>>>
http://www.geocities.jp/hitotsubishi/xp_fat_rename.png
>>>>
>>>> This is on Windows XP SP3, 32-bit edition. But I admit that I forgot
>>>> to try it on a foreign language version of Windows XP. A rough
>>>> translation of the error message is: "You[*] cannot change the name of
>>>> ??. The specified filename already exists. Please specify a different
>>>> name."
>>>>
>>>> [* An equally valid rough translation would start with I instead of
>>>> You. It's not 100% clear if Windows is reporting the user's inability
>>>> or Windows's own inability.]
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Pavel A." <pavel_a@NOfastmailNO.fm> wrote in message
>>>> news:eDrPVFHBJHA.2056@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>>> Norman, I've just renamed ??.txt to ?s.txt on a FAT disk on WinXP SP3.
>>>> It worked, and nobody accused me in anything.
>>>>
>>>> Warm regards,
>>>> --PA
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Norman Diamond wrote:
>>>>> This is pretty trivial because under ordinary conditions it's not
>>>>> likely to cause loss of data. But it's still good for laughs.
>>>>>
>>>>> If Windows Explorer is showing you a file named ??.txt and you want to
>>>>> rename it to ?s.txt, can you do the rename?
>>>>>
>>>>> Windows 98 + FAT file system --> yes
>>>>> Windows XP + NTFS file system --> yes
>>>>> Windows XP + FAT file system --> no
>>>>>
>>>>> By the way, I've been accused of not listening to authorities on
>>>>> Windows. The accuser is an authority on Windows. Does anyone know
>>>>> which authority I should listen to in order to hear that Windows
>>>>> operates this way? Or in order to hear that Windows doesn't operate
>>>>> this way? Did XP listen to a higher authority than 98 did?
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>
