Long file names in OS X

[matt connolly]

I'm so glad that OS X supports file names with more than 31 characters. I thought that Pro Tools maybe only supported 31 char filenames to be compatible with OS 9, but since no mac has shipped with OS 9 for a long time now, why can't we use nice long file names for our sound files????

Please can we have long file names for use in Pro Tools!


mc

[Kenshiro]

It's not so good as you may think!

I had big problems moving sessions between hard disk especially firewire since when I try to copy folders containing files with long names I always get an error -50 from the Finder. And then the copy stops! So I have to manually find the file(s) that create problems and rename it with a shorter name then try the copy again and see if everything is OK; this happens also if the file or the files are nested deep inside several folders. So I manually copy very few files until I find the dangerous files.

This is just one of the several problems and/or bugs that has OSX.....

I personally think that OSX is one of the worst application ever written (read carefully: an application NOT an operating system; OS9 is and operating system).

OSX seems a Windows system written in UNIX and it behave like Windows sometimes!

[jimlongo]

Because we will have to stay compatible with OS9 PTs systems for a long long long time to come.

[matt connolly]

Can't we then have a Save as... dialogue with a check box for short file names (truncating them), like the force pc compatibility option, or avid compatibility options in digitranslator?

I know that when you copy files with long names using an OS 9 system the file name is truncated to something with #XXXX some number at the end. It's a pain that this doesn't translate back to the full name on a new OS X system - so you do need to be totally committed to OS X to keep long file names.

But since apple don't ship OS 9 any more, this shouldn't be too much of a problem, no?

mc

[jimlongo]

For myself no, but the PTs platform will have to continue to support OS9 for at least 2 or 3 years i would think.