** Description changed: - This was experienced in Ubuntu 8.04. + Short story at triager's request : + + John is trying to move his (attached) file named "Mousepad" to his USB Flash disk. + (I see no way of attaching the file to this update, see in a further reply). + Ubuntu replies : There was an error copying the file into /media/D0 : Invalid filename + John does not understand why "Mousepad" is an invalid filename. + If the filename is invalid, the logical thing to do is to change it. + Right-click, rename, but the error remains whatever the new name. + + John asks for help and I explain that what he renames is not the filename. + I tell him that he must use terminal, cd to the right directory and use grep and mv. + John tells me that he wonders if Ubuntu is really a friendly system. He wants to quit. + I reply that sometimes it is not, but that many people are listening to user experiences in order to improve user friendliness by fighting bugs away. + + This was the short story for those who don't like details and precision. + They may jump to conclusions below. + John was also told that files already existed that were nowhere to see. + Even that the system couldn't stat Mousepad + Etc... + + Here is the long analysis. + This was experienced in Ubuntu 8.04[.1]. Launcher icons display a smart name different from the filename. This is great to allow names in different languages. But the particular implementation of this causes many problems. - 1) The user has no way to know the filename. - He even believes that, like for other files, the filename is the name he sees. + 1) The user has no way to know the filename (of a launcher/shortcut). + He believes that, like for other files, the filename is the name he sees. - 2) Even when knowing a difference may exist, there is now way to - - tell that the name displayed is potentially different - - determine the filename if it's different - Not even a dir will tell whose filename is which name. + 2) Even when knowing that a difference may exist, there is now way to tell that the name displayed is different and what the name is. + Not even a dir will tell whose filename is which smart name. Nor even requesting the properties of the launcher. One has to resort to editing a launcher to be sure of its filename !!! Or do a grep <smart-name> * !!! 3) Because of that, the error messages are confusing. Copy -> "duplicate filename" will indicate the smart-name. And the user may see no duplicate name condition. Or if he sees one, he renames the smart name and the message remains. 4) The user can't (easily) rename his files to remove the error condition. What Rename does rename is the smart-name, not the cause of the error. 5) The error situations are numerous. "duplicate filename" is one "invalid filename" is frequent (esp. when copying files to FAT32). I've seen the system itself mixing up the two names. I've seen messages saying that it couldn't stat some smart name. 6) Firefox abuses this inconvenience. It creates launchers with very pretty display names but horrible filenames. - One typical experience is trying to drag URLs onto a FAT directory. - Nothing may happen (no message), because the filename is invalid for FAT. - Head scratching, trying to drag onto Linux patition. This works. Oh. - Trying to move to FAT -> "invalid filename". Oh. - Rename, no way, oh, ... and fiddling with 1-5 above. In conclusion. It should be obvious when the name displayed is not the filename. There should be some mark on the icon when that happens. - BTW, this is much like the arrow to an icon of an à la MS-Windows symbolic link. If not displayed right away, the filename should be easily found. At least the properties should mention it. Balloon text (tip) is nice too. It should be easy to rename the filename. Probably, Desktop's Rename should offer to choose which name to rename. Hoping this will help making Linux usable by really anybody. André.
-- .desktop filename total confusion https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/204909 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
