Not sure if this ought to go here or in customer service, but... here goes.
I'm curious why the Paizo PDFs have such funny names when I download them, like "PZO9401E.pdf".
Wouldn't it be easier to find and sort if they read, "Pathfinder Companion: Second Darkness Player’s Guide.pdf" or the like. Would be easier for me anyway.
I know I could just as easily rename the files on my computer... I think... can you rename secured PDFs? I'm actually not sure if it's allowed/will let me. Never really tried.
seems to me as that is the product code.
Chief Technical Officer
|
Wouldn't it be easier to find and sort if they read, "Pathfinder Companion: Second Darkness Player’s Guide.pdf" or the like. Would be easier for me anyway.
It would be easier, but:
- Windows XP and other Windows OSs forbid some characters ()
- Spaces can be inconvenient for people using command-line tools, as they have to be escaped or part of quoted strings
- The HFS file system used by old Macs limits file names to 31 characters (HFS+ did away with that limit 10 years ago, but some folks still have HFS-formatted drives)
- The NTFS file system has a 255-character limit for the entire file path, so even 57-character file names like the one you suggested could be a problem for people who have nested folders with long names
- Some versions of Windows (probably those running on NTFS, but I'm not sure) have a 250-character limit for file paths, so the above problem applies to them
Now, we could come up with a more title-based name following all of those rules, but we'd have to make sure it's unique. While "PComp_SD_PG.PDF" might seem reasonable now, what if we do another AP with the initials "SD?"
Since we know product codes are usually short and always unique, they're an easy solution to the problem.
The NTFS file system has a 255-character limit for the entire file path, so even 57-character file names like the one you suggested could be a problem for people who have nested folders with long names
Actually, this is incorrect. The 255-character limit applies to the name of a file or folder, not the entire file path. A limit also exists for that, but it is much longer. If memory serves correctly, it is 65535 characters.
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
Actually, this is incorrect. The 255-character limit applies to the name of a file or folder, not the entire file path. A limit also exists for that, but it is much longer. If memory serves correctly, it is 65535 characters.The NTFS file system has a 255-character limit for the entire file path, so 57-character file names could be a problem for people who have nested folders with long names
Kind of. The limit for an *absolute* path is 32767 characters, but *relative* paths are limited to 255 characters. Or so I'm told.
Kind of. The limit for an *absolute* path is 32767 characters, but *relative* paths are limited to 255 characters. Or so I'm told.Actually, this is incorrect. The 255-character limit applies to the name of a file or folder, not the entire file path. A limit also exists for that, but it is much longer. If memory serves correctly, it is 65535 characters.The NTFS file system has a 255-character limit for the entire file path, so 57-character file names could be a problem for people who have nested folders with long names
Fair enough, but what is a *relative* path?
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
Fair enough, but what is a *relative* path?
Wikipedia has an overview of the difference between absolute and relative paths here.
|
It seems that it's 260 but many of the Windows API functions have overloads that allow unicode and much longer paths: linkee.
I like the names with the product codes in them, although some of the code numbers are weirdly distributed, like Chronicles products using the 11xx, 30xx, and 92xx ranges. :)
Fair enough, but what is a *relative* path?Wikipedia has an overview of the difference between absolute and relative paths here.
Thanks a bunch - so the relative path is essentially the name of the immediate/working directory plus the filename.
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
Thanks a bunch - so the relative path is essentially the name of the immediate/working directory plus the filename.Fair enough, but what is a *relative* path?Wikipedia has an overview of the difference between absolute and relative paths here.
Well... usually. But it can be more than that. Let's say that my current working directory's absolute path is /Users/Vic/Documents/2009/January, and there's also a directory with the absolute path of /Users/Vic/Documents/2008/December. The relative path to the December directory from the January directory is (assuming you're working in an OS where is how you specify the parent of the currently specified directory).
|
|
Well... usually. But it can be more than that. Let's say that my current working directory's absolute path is /Users/Vic/Documents/2009/January, and there's also a directory with the absolute path of /Users/Vic/Documents/2008/December. The relative path to the December directory from the January directory is (assuming you're working in an OS where is how you specify the parent of the currently specified directory).
That's true in *nix and Windows. Of course, the bigger difference is the all-important issue of which way the slashes face...
OK, I get it now - thanks for the explanation.