>A version of Apple's tar had some kind of bug. I'm not sure if that's >still there. The main problem with OS X is that the default [and only >reasonable] filing system is case insensitive [windows has this problem >though], and more painfully, the default unzipper stuffit likes to chop >filenames off at a certain length. But these are the same problems for >tag.gz and zip.
Actually, Apple doesn't really have it's own version of tar, it shipped the same tar that comes with Solaris and gnutar (the one that handles long filenames) installed as gnutar. The standard tar now reports itself as GNU tar on 10.2.4 so I imagine that it was changed around either 10.1 or 10.2. You'll most likely find that a lot of solaris boxes still don't have gnutar and so they also suffer from the truncated filename problem that OS X did as well (though checking our Solaris 8 box here it has GNU tar, not sure if we installed that or not though). As for StuffIt, earlier versions chopped filenames off, however this was fixed quite some time ago as well and you are correct that it affected both tar.gz and zip. As for case insensitive file systems, you'll find that that's a very common problem so you should never name two files the same thing differing only by case - at the very least it confuses users. You'll also note that there are actually three types of file systems with regards to case: 1. Case sesitive (Linux, Solaris, most UNIX's) 2. Case insensitive (DOS and perhaps early versions of Windows) 3. Case preserving (Mac and more recent versions of Windows) Case preserving is case insensitive for finding a file but case sensitive for creating a new file, hence if I create a file on a mac called "File" I can refer to it as either "File" or "file" but if I transfer it to a Linux box it will always come across as "File". If the same was done with a DOS file system it would come across to the Linux box as "FILE". As for what to distribute as: * make sure the .zip file stays as .tar.gz still isn't particularly common on Windows * make very sure you assume case sensitivity when referring to files but never have two files of the same name with different case * try to keep the file names under 32 characters if possible (the maximum file length on Mac OS 8 and below). Of course, if you're using anything above Java 1.1 it won't run on OS 8 or 9 anyway. I've been working with Macs, Windows and Linux for many years now and that advise seems to get me through nearly every situation pretty happily. Adrian Sutton, Software Engineer Ephox Corporation www.ephox.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
