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White spaces are removed without consent from the user

Posted: 07.04.2018, 16:14
by Forez
If you have a files names like

Code: Select all

   something.txt
then when you copy or cut and paste it or copy / move it with the shell FC menu options, then that file becomes

Code: Select all

something.txt
being stripped of its spaces in the beginning


I do not think that FC under any circumstance should remove any number of spaces that are in a name of a file or folder, be it at the beginning, in the middle or at the end. For me personally it is counterproductive, because I use just spaces to push the file to the top of an alphabetic filelist- always for some reason

Re: White spaces are removed without consent from the user

Posted: 08.04.2018, 09:09
by Dreamer
I think it's a standard Windows behavior, it's probably an illegal character, it could cause problem in some programs, so I think it's normal and it's not a bug. I found this:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... or-windows
I use just spaces to push the file to the top of an alphabetic filelist
You can use any other legal character for this purpose, e.g. exclamation mark.

Re: White spaces are removed without consent from the user

Posted: 09.04.2018, 19:18
by Forez
Dreamer wrote: 08.04.2018, 09:09 I think it's a standard Windows behavior,
That is probably a correct argument- but at the same time it is not right thing

Yes- in Window Explorer the behavior is [if I remember correctly] exactly the same. But many things done by Microsoft are just plain wrong- just look at those OS various tweak programs and all those registry hacks available all over the Internet. I myself have a number of them, so that my Windows 7 would be a more user friendly and work efficient. I can give some examples if you like
Dreamer wrote: 08.04.2018, 09:09 it's probably an illegal character, it could cause problem in some programs, so I think it's normal and it's not a bug.
I am talking here about ordinary spaces done with the Space bar of a keyboard, not some special / unusual versions of spaces. And while technically it is not a bug and can be viewed as normal- can as normal be viewed a mandatory change of name without even informing the user of occurrence of such profound thing?


And now please take a look at this not so old discussion: https://community.mp3tag.de/t/f-automat ... ame/18382/

In that Mp3tag, which is not a filehandler software, you can now have spaces not only in the beginning but also at the end of a file [and tamper with such files / names freely]


Also, the very old ACDSee 3.1 [from the year 2000], which is partially a filehandler, you can add spaces at the beginning of the filename; and move / copy them around within that ACDSee with retained excess of spaces. And at least since that 2000 I personally have never run into problems coming out from spaces being at the beginning of the name of the file. The only problem I had was that Windows Explorer was removing me those spaces- if I forgot to use ACDSee that is


Also the TeraCopy has no problem with retaining white spaces

Dreamer wrote: 08.04.2018, 09:09 I found this:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... or-windows
I use just spaces to push the file to the top of an alphabetic filelist
You can use any other legal character for this purpose, e.g. exclamation mark.
And why people use FreeCommander and such- to go past limitations of Windows Explorer? Is not not a software like FreeCommander suppose to be better than the default Microsoft file handling stuff? If the user wants to have extra spaces for whatever reasons- then apparently the user needs them and probably knows what is doing and what the drawbags can be

If you still view this as too risky [for some of the users], then please consider this making as merely an available option, that has to be activated by the [more advanced] users in settings

Re: White spaces are removed without consent from the user

Posted: 09.04.2018, 21:02
by Dreamer
First, I can't do any decision, it's on Marek.

Just search for "leading whitespace", first page is all about "How do I remove leading whitespace". I don't know which problem could cause it, but it's apparently something wrong.

Regarding the option, I'm not sure about it, file/folder names are all over the FC, I don't know if it's possible, very hard, or impossible to implement such an option, but again, I can't to anything.

Re: White spaces are removed without consent from the user

Posted: 14.04.2018, 22:24
by Marek
FreeCommander use for copy&paste and for drag&drop always Windows operations.
Microsoft has decided to remove the leading whitespaces form the file name.
I have no plans to change it.
The FreeCommander operations copy/move does not remove spaces.

Re: White spaces are removed without consent from the user

Posted: 17.04.2018, 17:04
by Forez
Marek wrote: 14.04.2018, 22:24 FreeCommander use for copy&paste and for drag&drop always Windows operations.
Microsoft has decided to remove the leading whitespaces form the file name.
[...]
So if Microsoft changes their policy on this, the change also be followed up [automatically] in FreeCommander?

So I can either wait for a very hypothetical change- or indulge myself in tweaking my Windows into retaining those spaces; so that FC would also retain them then?

Re: White spaces are removed without consent from the user

Posted: 23.05.2019, 23:50
by stephen147
I've been redirected here from my post the exact opposite of https://freecommander.com/forum/viewtop ... f=7&t=9414.

:?: An option would be a middle ground here?