On Mon, Jan 02, 2006 at 02:24:58PM -0800, Stephen Harris wrote: > Why doesn't English have the default of C:\Programs? > Is it because C:\program files adheres to basic Windows guidelines? > No, certainly not. > Just because Word pioneered filenames with spaces doesn't > mean that practice should be emulated by other editors, nor > does Words ability to do this elevate the filename with spaces > capability to a "basic windows guideline".
It's not Word pioneering bad practices, it's about Microsoft setting rules about what is acceptable in their world and what not. Like it or not, they are entitled to do that. There's a nice book on that. I put a copy of it between my desk and monitor at work to make sure it does not crash. I forgot the title, though, but could tell you on Tuesday if you want. The possibly surprising part is that most things in there actually make sense and lead to that 'smooth' user experience when switsching between different applications under Windows (compared to the constand retraining under *nix) > I've investigated this issue. I have not been able to find any > reason for the adoption of path with spaces to make the > Windows OS work better or work better with other programs. People just like to type Phrases with Spaces instead Phrases-with-hyphens_or_underscores. It's a bit of 'making life simpler for the user' vs 'making life simpler for the prorammer'. Of course, in the *nix world most users are more or less programmers as well so they tend to agree on the fact that life should be simple for programmers as well. > I think then that the default install of a path with spaces is not > part of basic windows guidelines. For certain countries it is. Most notably for GB and the US. Andre'
