Date: Tue, 04 Feb 1997 08:59:10 -0600 (MDT)
From: Roger Ivie <IVIE AT cc DOT usu DOT edu>
Subject: Re: [opendos] OpenDOS + Win95 w/FAT32?
To: OPENDOS AT MAIL DOT TACOMA DOT NET
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> Despite the fact that Windoze sucks (terribly!) it does handle the
> problem....pretty good (could be better, but I'm not smart enough to think
> of a better solution :-)  ).

A relative gave me a book titled "Zen of Windows 95 Programming" (I had
suggested "Unauthorized Windows95" would be a good gift, but there you
go). This actually turned out to be a really interesting book, but the
chapter on long file names will scare you.

For example, Windows 95 will sometimes spontaneously rename files (at least
from the viewpoint of an 8.3 app). So there are times when you've been
working for weeks with "this_i~1" and suddenly Windows will decide the
file is now called "this_i~2".

Most of the other major difficulties with long file names are only applicable
to Windows programs, though (like sometimes it'll quote long file names as
arguments and sometimes it won't; how do you parse the command line correctly?).

All in all, the book was really interesting reading.

Roger Ivie
ivie AT cc DOT usu DOT edu

PS: Has anyone looked to see how Samba deals with long filenames? I know they
have some sort of hashing algorithm, but I don't know what it is.