IT Guy Rant: Long file paths

[linksep]

Does anyone else hate this? Seems several of my users just cannot survive with abbreviations (and some software vendors too... Autodesk is horrible about this).

Examples:
X:\Projects\Project # Full Legal Name of Client and Full description of project scope with no abbreviations\Subsection of project description revision number spelled out date\subsection of subsection\repeat subsection of subsection just for good measure\Photos\spelled out date - Photos - project manager's name and camera description\Full Legal Name of Client and full description of project with no abbreviations spelled out date description of picture.jpg

D:\Autodesk ________ Design Suite Premium 2015\Install\_______Design Suite Premium 2015 Setup files\Autodesk _______ Design Suite Premium Programs\Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2015\Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2015 Training\Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2015 Tutorials\Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2015 Tutorial Videos\Autodesk 3ds Max Design Tutorial Video Section 1 video topic.wmv

 

[Brad_C]

Drives me mental. I'll go back to 8.3 any day.

 

[eljefino]

I have software at work that can't tolerate forward slashes on an otherwise reasonable GUI. It takes them but adds subdirectories that "break" the mission, and can't be undone.

 

[Deltona_Dave]

A real pain when having to install when using the command line interface.

 

[Andrew1972]

I like it when folks enter descriptive titles in pathing and variables in code. We no longer are stuck in 8 char......

Less work documenting as its clear as day.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Have you used the most recent version of sharepoint ...

 

[BubbaFL]

Long filenames are awesome.

What drives me nuts is that the allowable characters list for files stored in OneDrive for Business / Sharepoint is more restrictive than NTFS in general.

 

[simple_gifts]

Spaces in file names = bad practice.

My new work manager of our unix group emailed us to fill out some spreadsheets. He said his background was basically Windows based; I emailed the completed spread sheets back, saying we all knew his background was windows because no unix person would have made a spreadsheet name with capital letters and spaces in the file name.

 

[itguy08]

Doesn't bother me at all. I admin Linux and we have tab completion so it's just a few Tabs away for path completion.

I would have figured Windows would have matured enough to add that feature in. But then again Windows has a LOT of growing up to do!

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: Miller88
Have you used the most recent version of sharepoint ...


Yeah like all versions of Sharepoint it's complete and utter garbage. The only reason it has any traction is its "free" with most enterprise agreements. Free as in per seat licenses are included, you just pay for the server side. Just like the other POS, Exchange.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: itguy08
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Have you used the most recent version of sharepoint ...


Yeah like all versions of Sharepoint it's complete and utter garbage. The only reason it has any traction is its "free" with most enterprise agreements. Free as in per seat licenses are included, you just pay for the server side. Just like the other POS, Exchange.


We have the enterprise version that we actually pay for. It's pretty useful as a collaboration and social media tool. But it is very complicated and has a lot of extras. And the file names are atrocious. The newest version also doesn't seem to allow using it as a network drive.

 

[javacontour]

File Name Completion for the win!

I like Directories capitalized and files in lowercase.

I have adopted/used some of my OOP programming style as I'll used mixed case in a fileName, capitalizing the first letter of each word, starting at the secondWord. (Some examples provided in the previous sentence.)

Originally Posted By: itguy08
Doesn't bother me at all. I admin Linux and we have tab completion so it's just a few Tabs away for path completion.

I would have figured Windows would have matured enough to add that feature in. But then again Windows has a LOT of growing up to do!

 

[spackard]

Becomes hard to trust any of your tools when it comes time to migrate storage.

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: Miller88

We have the enterprise version that we actually pay for. It's pretty useful as a collaboration and social media tool. But it is very complicated and has a lot of extras. And the file names are atrocious. The newest version also doesn't seem to allow using it as a network drive.


We do too and it's still a pile of garbage. You can't find anything, full features are restricted to the garbage Microsoft browsers, files get lost, eaten, overwritten, etc. We refer to it as the "place where good files go to die".

We even try to use it as our Intranet and it sucks. Trying to search for something like "2015 vacation calendar" gets you everything BUT what you are looking for.

There are much better collaboration and document management solutions out there. Igloo , Huddle, Alfresco, etc. All are better than the POS known as Sharepoint. The only reason SP got traction is because MS gave away the seat licenses and made you pay for the server with an Enterprise agreement. Other than that, it's a steaming pile.

 

[Andrew1972]

Paid offering of Google Apps/Google Mail this stuff becomes irrelevant.

Amazing stuff and not hard to find any file or really doc with a company that knows something about search.

 

[Brad_C]

Originally Posted By: itguy08
Doesn't bother me at all. I admin Linux and we have tab completion so it's just a few Tabs away for path completion.

I would have figured Windows would have matured enough to add that feature in. But then again Windows has a LOT of growing up to do!


I can't believe I'm going to say this (as I've been a card carrying windows hater since abut 1996) but most versions of windows I've had the displeasure of being exposed to have had tab completion in the shell.

Spaces have no place in a file name, but then I'm also anti top-posting, html e-mail and most other "shiny" that has been introduced over the last 20 years that makes life less pleasant for people who actually have to deal with the fallout.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Brad_C
Originally Posted By: itguy08
Doesn't bother me at all. I admin Linux and we have tab completion so it's just a few Tabs away for path completion.

I would have figured Windows would have matured enough to add that feature in. But then again Windows has a LOT of growing up to do!


I can't believe I'm going to say this (as I've been a card carrying windows hater since abut 1996) but most versions of windows I've had the displeasure of being exposed to have had tab completion in the shell.

Spaces have no place in a file name, but then I'm also anti top-posting, html e-mail and most other "shiny" that has been introduced over the last 20 years that makes life less pleasant for people who actually have to deal with the fallout.


Correct, Windows shell has tab completion as well.

And I actually like Exchange as a mail system, though am not a big fan of Sharepoint.

I admin both Windows and Linux and like both of them. I know that's a sacrilege but oh well

Then again I like both Cisco and Juniper too

 

[EdwardC]

Whoa! I had no idea the Windows shell has tab completion!

I'm no IT person, but every once in a while, I help out with our network/server/backups and the long file names have been a major problem. I don't know if it's a file system or software issue, but some longer files never copy. It probably doesn't help that this are backups nested in directories in directories that just keep adding up...

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: EdwardC
Whoa! I had no idea the Windows shell has tab completion!

I'm no IT person, but every once in a while, I help out with our network/server/backups and the long file names have been a major problem. I don't know if it's a file system or software issue, but some longer files never copy. It probably doesn't help that this are backups nested in directories in directories that just keep adding up...


How that can happen is actually surprisingly easy unfortunately. Path limitations for a share are directly related to how the share is accessed. Say for example you have a mapped network drive on a server, the actual path is:

\\server5.edgar.com\DATA\SiteBData\SiteBUsersFolders\Accounting\Julie

"Julie" has this path as simply N: on her workstation. Julie likes deep directories and files everything this way. Julie ends up with:

Z:\My Work and Financial Documents\Year\2014\October\First Week\Data for Stephen to review\Excel Sheets\Human Resources\First Drafts\Julie Barnes analysis of work performance data collected first week of October 2014.xls

as the path to one of her files.

You have a backup solution that backs up the entire server using the share path. To the computer doing the backup, the path to the above file is:

\\server5.edgar.com\DATA\SiteBData\SiteBUsersFolders\Accounting\Julie\My Work and Financial Documents\Year\2014\October\First Week\Data for Stephen to review\Excel Sheets\Human Resources\First Drafts\Julie Barnes analysis of work performance data collected first week of October 2014.xls

Significantly longer. If this exceeds the permitted path length, that file (or folder) will not be able to be accessed over the network.

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL

Correct, Windows shell has tab completion as well.


Son of you know what - Just went to my win7 box and it does it. It's a little odd but it does it.

Quote:
And I actually like Exchange as a mail system, though am not a big fan of Sharepoint.


My condolences. Never been a fan of Exchange - too overly complicated, too reliant on Microsoft, and just a horrible mail software design. Compared to, say IBM Domino and even a UNIX type mail system.

Quote:
I admin both Windows and Linux and like both of them. I know that's a sacrilege but oh well

Then again I like both Cisco and Juniper too

Nah - I'm a Mac and Linux guy so that's about the same in the sacrilege department. Although there is no place for Microsoft in any company. IBM is finding out what a money pit Windows really is: IBM Mac deployment They say a Mac saves them $270 vs a Windows box.