OK, we seem to be going in two different directions here, so in an effort to at least get something done about the immediate problem ASAP, I propose that we start out by doing the part we all seem to agree on right now. Unless I'm mistaken, all of us agree that the LDraw spec shouldn't discourage the use of spaces in filenames. I understand the point you're trying to make, Roland, and I don't necessarily disagree with it, but I'm hesitant to try to come up with a full list of bad characters, because it seems like doing so will almost certainly result in missed characters.
So I propose that we first make a small update to the spec, then further discuss Roland's point as a separate issue. My proposed change to the spec would be to remove the following sentence:
Furthermore, the sentence following the one above would be changed to the following:
Note, the above sentence would be the one that would be updated further based on Roland's proposal. All I did was remove "Other" from the beginning to reflect the deletion of the previous sentence.
In addition to the above, I also feel we should codify MLCad's behavior, since it appears to be the de-facto standard. This can be done by adding the following sentence to the end of that paragraph in the spec:
However, if there's any disagreement about the above at all, then I think we should vote on the first two changes immediately, and temporarily table discussion of leading and trailing whitespace in the same way I'm proposing we temporarily table discussion of Roland's point.
So I propose that we first make a small update to the spec, then further discuss Roland's point as a separate issue. My proposed change to the spec would be to remove the following sentence:
LDraw Specification Wrote:For reasons of cross-platform and cross-(programming) language portability, the use of white space characters (such as space and tab) in filenames is strongly discouraged.
Furthermore, the sentence following the one above would be changed to the following:
LDraw Specification Wrote:Special characters, such as &, #, |, and ?, should be avoided as they may also cause cross-platform issues and create problems when used in URLs.
Note, the above sentence would be the one that would be updated further based on Roland's proposal. All I did was remove "Other" from the beginning to reflect the deletion of the previous sentence.
In addition to the above, I also feel we should codify MLCad's behavior, since it appears to be the de-facto standard. This can be done by adding the following sentence to the end of that paragraph in the spec:
Proposed LDraw Specification Addition Wrote:Furthermore, filenames must not contain leading or trailing white space characters.
However, if there's any disagreement about the above at all, then I think we should vote on the first two changes immediately, and temporarily table discussion of leading and trailing whitespace in the same way I'm proposing we temporarily table discussion of Roland's point.