On Jul 1, 2007, at 2:26 PM, Karen wrote:
Hi Christopher,
You are right about the corruption happening when you try to
transfer the file to another computer or drive. This can happen
whenever the # sign appears in a file name for whatever reason
(most often, as you have discovered, when you are dealing with a
long file name but this can happen too when one deliberately uses
the # sign when naming a file) It has to do with the rename
command of the app and the way a longer file name will be handled.
In trying to rename a file with a filename that is too long, it
will take the front of the filename you gave it, add the hex which
is actually a converted representation of the files inode number
(it's "address" if you will in the file system) and then the
extension.
I only know the basics here, but I have a hunch this is a leftover
from the OS 9 days where a file could only have 31 characters in
the name. If an app is still using the old "rules" for keeping a
filename to 31 characters, you will see these hex names coming up
as it tries to cope with the long file name. Just out of
curiosity, does your corrupted file have 31 characters in it?
(including the file extension?)
I haven't had this happen with current OS X apps but since
Appleworks is older and hasn't been updated for OS X, I could see
why it would be a problem.
My rule of thumb is:
Try to keep file names short when naming files in apps that seem to
change to the hex name with longer file names (now we perhaps know
which programs are still getting caught with their shorts down huh?)
Bwhaa! (spit tea all over my screen again! Bad, BAD Finale lister!)
But good advice.
Don't use the # sign when naming a file (I used to do this to keep
track of file versions in OS 9 i.e. xyzproject#1...on long projects
I'll do a save as occasionally so if something disastrous happens,
I can go back to a previous version and not lose all my work... I
now use a (-) instead i.e. xyzproject-3.mus)
If you see the hex file name at any point don't try to copy it to
another machine.
If you see a suggested hex name come up when you are doing a Save
As or any other action that will allow you to rename the file,
change the name before saving... preferably to something shorter.
BTW... have you ever experienced a kernel panic during/after trying
to copy one of these files with the # sign? That can happen too.
No, I have not seen a kernel panic yet (but the year is still young!)
I see that I may have been extraordinarily lucky so far.
Do you think that perhaps renaming a hexed file to a shorter name
could save me, even if it has been that way for a while through
multiple saves? Or do you think that if I don't catch it at the first
save then the file is trashed? I suspect that copying the contents to
a fresh file would save me, too.
Thanks so much for the great info and advice; you have been most
helpful so far. Do you have any advice for searching out talk of this
on the 'Net? My Google searches always turn up programmer's babble
for all the search terms I use.
Christopher
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