MS Teams channels cannot contain MS-DOS device names • Hacker News Board

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

#361

Post by xp84 » Mon, Aug 14, 2023, 5:16 PM UTC

Dalewyn wrote: post #292

xp84 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If it floats your boat, you do you my dude. But that being said, you're the reason why file systems are abstracted away more and more with all file system queries force fed through some kind of search engine.

> you're the reason why file systems are abstracted away more and more

Citation needed. I'm pretty sure the reason that happened is that Gen Z (and heck, definitely a good chunk of my millennial generation too) weren't ever taught what files and directories even are, so for them to be able to manage, product designers moved to a combo of "Your documents live inside the app you made them with" and "You search for your documents and they'll come up." Notably though, they never solved the other problems the filesystem solves, such as "but where are my files actually, I need to move them between devices or give them to another person."

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

#362

Post by slaymaker1907 » Mon, Aug 14, 2023, 6:22 PM UTC

lostlogin wrote: post #212

vtee44 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I see your point, but forbidding slashes, the weird Windows reserved names, maintaining case insensitivity (also Windows), and forbidding colons doesn't seem like the craziest restrictions on file names. It can definitely get out of hand, though, if you start excluding too much stuff. IIRC, Azure doesn't even allow slashes in storage account names which greatly limits naming schemes and goes too far in my opinion.

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

#363

Post by IIsi50MHz » Wed, Aug 16, 2023, 12:33 AM UTC

dustingetz wrote: post #165

Dwedit wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

\\?\GLOBALROOT\ anyone? Now you're opening devices from the NT object namespace rather than files. Bonus: You can create the file C:\con\con using NT Native API filesystem calls. Someone even made a video of installing Windows into C:\con\con, and the kernel-side stuff works beautifully, and the explorer shell side dies horribly.

AOL chat would bluescreen a Win95 box if someone sent a chat message like “}s\con\con” - }s was the directive to play a sound

I believe it was more like: {s buddyin.wav}

At some point, I think it would only play sound files in the program's folder. I have the vague feeling that it was later changed to an AOL-created subfolder unique to each Windows user.

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

#364

Post by IIsi50MHz » Wed, Aug 16, 2023, 12:43 AM UTC

duskwuff wrote: post #203

reaperducer wrote: post #75

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.

> I think the only character that Macs don't allow is the colon. Colon is allowed in the filesystem; it's displayed as a forward slash in the UI. (There's historical reasons they do this: Classic Mac OS used colon as a path separator.)

And it was merely not recommended to use a fullstop at the start of a filename. Device drivers —perhaps just for storage devices — were usually named this way (and also marked invisible). There was an alleged chance the OS would try to load your non-driver file as a driver for the device it resided on. Though I was unable to make it happen.