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MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names

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Re: MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah those 8+3 file names sure birthed some creative abbreviations. Necessity, mother, all that

Brevity forces thought, which I prefer to "Putting a Sentence in a File Name.docx". FORTRAN originally had the same limitation for function names, and that lead to some classics such as GEMM and SAXPY.

When it comes to file names, I disagree that brevity serves a useful purpose. I name my files like I’m an Amazon reseller so that I’m sure to find it with Search later no matter which detail I remember. “Budget Spreadsheet (worked on with Jane) with projections with and without buying a new Tesla Model Y or Chevy Chevrolet Bolt - 2023 2024 2025.xlsx” that’s my idea of a file name.

Re: MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names

#212
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, you are not correct about slashes. They are allowed in filenames for Macs https://alexwlchan.net/2021/slashes/

It doesn’t make sense tbh, it just causes confusion when someone is using terminal. Slashes in file names are forbidden everywhere except Mac, it needs to be changed in order to send it anywhere or use in some apps. But I think colon is used much more in names. I don’t get why did they do that.

Based on this logic, do we ban everything that is banned somewhere? Surely we can aim higher than the lowest common denominator.

Re: MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s only forbidden for Windows users. I think the only character that Macs don't allow is the colon. AFAIK, everything else is fair game, even emojis. I just created a project with "ê" in the title. I wonder if I'll be able to share that with my Windows coworkers on Teams.

Linux treats filenames as bytes and only disallows the ascii slash and null. All other bytes are fair game.

> [...] and only disallows the ascii slash and null. All other bytes are fair game.

There's also the special treatment of "", ".", and ".." (that is, a file or directory name consisting entirely of zero, one, or two dots), and the convention that a name starting with a dot is hidden.

Re: MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names

#214
post #179
post #24

Why is it that most "chat/conference" apps become horrible sooner or later? I still remember when teams used to be an OK app. It even had a Linux desktop client. I remember when slack was actually fast, I remember Skype out being more reliable to make phone calls than my mobile/cell service. Today slack is extremely slow if you add few organisations to it (but at least you can add more than one). Teams has deprecated…

Because after your lean, highly-productive startup team creates the app that everyone loves, you get a bunch of funding and hire thousands of extraneous software developers and then have to find something for them to do.

Thousands of engineers and managers and product designers who can only get promoted if they look successful, and who can only look successful if they can add features.

Re: MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names

#215

Circa 1998 I was a teenage Linux zealot who would attend LAN parties carrying a Linux box. It actually worked -- at the time, WINE practically existed to support Starcraft, Quake 2 could run natively, and that covered like 95% of what people were playing. One time I thought it would be funny to run a shell script that looped through every Windows share on the network and tried to open `CON/CON` on it, resulting in a…

This brings back memories. Every LAN group had that one friend like you. I'm sure you made up for it if, like my BSD friend, you were handy with network troubleshooting and always brought spare CAT-5.

Re: MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names

#216

This is most likely due to those names not being allowed for files or folders in the Windows file system. MS Teams channels create a matching folder in SharePoint where file attachments are stored.

Microsoft, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll build it on top of SharePoint."

Re: MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names

#217
post #24

Why is it that most "chat/conference" apps become horrible sooner or later? I still remember when teams used to be an OK app. It even had a Linux desktop client. I remember when slack was actually fast, I remember Skype out being more reliable to make phone calls than my mobile/cell service. Today slack is extremely slow if you add few organisations to it (but at least you can add more than one). Teams has deprecated…

Because believe it or not, a chat/conference is the most easy gateway to an "everything app" just like with WeChat. Afterall, a chat/conference app is a microcosm of the "internet". Your chat app is great but imagine if we can send/share audio clips too. Your chat app is great but imagine if we can send/share video clips too. Your chat app is great but imagine if we can send/share live video too. Your chat app is gre…

Instant Message Chat + Anything Else isn't actually a model for anything useful. It's a gross kitchen sink with chunks of forgotten meals clogging up the drain. The insult is these companies have nothing other than "productivity tool" as a label to slap on the side of this fetid and entirely unproductive mess.

Re: MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names

#218
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was about to say "Which is essentially leaking the existence of something terrible inside. They should be embarrassed to say something like this in public. Like saying you can't have %s or $PS1. Why the hell not? What are you doing with this user-supplied input?" But maybe it's more about what everyone else might do with a channel name. Ie they might cut & paste it anywhere, and I guess windows users aren't expecte…

The Something Terrible in this case is early DOS which did not have separate folders. So the device files were in the same namespace as the user's files, so the user couldn't name a file CON or LPT1. These are preserved for backwards compatibility. To this day you can write a program that writes to a CON file in any folder, and the program will print the write to console.

Another interesting aspect of this, which I remember specifically from reading MS-DOS manuals in the 90s as a kid (I was an incredibly fun 12 year old) is that this choice was an intentional one done in the name of flexibility. These device names were correctly written with a colon, but you are allowed to omit the colons. For instance:

copy con lpt1

And

copy con: lpt1:

were interchangeable. If they’d chosen to not save users keystrokes and force colons when referencing devices, I’m not positive, but I think it would have eliminated the need for many of these reserved words in file names in general.

Also, side note, the “copy con outputfilename.txt” idiom is one that I still can’t ever remember how to do the equivalent on UNIX/Linux!

Re: MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was RedHat. I had tried Debian first but switched to RedHat pretty quickly afterwards. (Back then, RedHat had nothing to do with "enterprise", it was just the most polished Linux distro around. Ubuntu didn't exist yet.) (These days FWIW I use boring old Debian, and I'm not a zealot about it. It works for me. Use what works for you, I don't care. I have a separate machine for gaming and it runs Windows. I k…

Back when Redhat was the name of the enterprise releases and the open source releases.

I think there was no separate enterprise release at the time. But could be misremembering.

Re: MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Circa 1998 I was a teenage Linux zealot who would attend LAN parties carrying a Linux box. Arch, I suppose.

Arch wasn't around in 1998. I'm going to put my money on Slackware.

I used to love slackware, by far the best linux experience. It just worked well.
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