ubuntuone-users team mailing list archive

[Carsten Agger <agger@xxxx>]

On Mon, 2009-11-02 at 12:02 -0500, Elliot Murphy wrote:
> I appreciate that having a space in the name of the Ubuntu One folder in
> the users home directory is something that many people have opinions on,
> and I don't think everyone will end up agreeing.
> 
> The version of the name with the space in it subjectively looks better
> (I know this is something I can't really defend or prove with facts).
> Also, spending time removing the space would be time much better spent
> on other features, like providing the ability for users to sync any
> folder they want.
> 
This is a decision, and even though I've spoken against the use of
spaces in file and folder names since many shell scripts and programs
operate under the tacit assumption/convention that file names consist of
non-blank printable characters, I respect the arguments above - I think
they are good arguments.

(Incidentally, John Lenton is correct in affirming that the breaking
example I provided was not of "globbing" - my bad, I had globbing in
mind but thought of something else, when I did the example.)

I think that eventually allowing users to change the default folder will
be the best solution in the long run. 

> 
> Any program that ships in Ubuntu that cannot handle the space in the
> name (whether from the GUI or the command line) is broken, and if you
> file bugs on it we will get it fixed.

This is also good, and whether the convention of no blanks in a file
name is a good one or not (which I think it is), programs which can't
handle special characters in file names obviously *are* broken. This is
especially important for a system like Ubuntu, which has to be available
in so many languages and different scripts.



--
http://www.modspil.dk