stephen--

the reasons for not using the ISO 8601 for filestamping are two-(or more)
fold.
1) some OSs have relatively short filenames (the mac has a 32 character
limit) and the ISO 8601 takes up 15 spaces. granted, only a few characters
are saved with my method compared to ISO 8601, but every character counts...
2) more importantly, there is no need for using a standard on the filenames
since the filestamp _is not used_ within the image. it is _solely_ for the
reader's eyes outside the image. when the filestamped file is filedIn, the
filestamp is left out.

i encourage you to implement the ISO 8601 standard 'cause standards are
always good, but using ISO 8601 is overkill in this instance.

jason
> From: Stephan Rudlof <stephan.rudlof at ipk.fhg.de>
> Reply-To: squeak at cs.uiuc.edu
> Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1999 10:40:44 +0200
> To: Bert Freudenberg <bert at isgnw.CS.Uni-Magdeburg.De>, ML Sqeak
> <squeak at cs.uiuc.edu>
> Subject: RE: [ENH] BetterFileStamp
> Resent-From: squeak at cs.uiuc.edu
> Resent-Date: 22 Oct 1999 08:42:00 -0000
> 
> Dear Bert,
> 
> 
> Why isn't '19960415T083000' good for filenames? There are _no_ '/', '\',':'
> in it!
> And _also_
> - it is useabel for other - internal? - purposes and
> - it is conform to some - ISO 8601 (like John says) - standard.
> 
> Where is the problem?
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Stephan
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Bert Freudenberg [mailto:bert at isgnw.CS.Uni-Magdeburg.De]
>> Sent: Donnerstag, 21. Oktober 1999 15:39
>> To: ML Sqeak
>> Subject: RE: [ENH] BetterFileStamp
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, 21 Oct 1999, Stephan Rudlof wrote:
>> 
>>> A format like '19960415T083000' is readable if someone wants to
>> look in some
>>> sources, but normally you would display such a time stamp in a
>> GUI far away
>>> from its internal representation.
>> 
>> Again: We're not talking about timestamps in general, but about generating
>> unique filenames for filing out chagnesets. The string in the changesets
>> header is completely different from that, as is each method's timestamp.
>> 
>>> And there are no characters which would make problems in
>> filenames, I think;
>> 
>> Let me give only one example: You cannot have a filename with the
>> directory separator in it ($/, $\, $: on Unix/Dos/Mac). There are more
>> disallowed characters, depending on the file system / operating system /
>> whatever.
>> 
>>> Why needs the file stamp format to be directly - without
>> converting -
>>> compatible with file name formats at all?
>> 
>> Because that's exactly what the method #dateTimeSuffix in class Utilities
>> is all about (we're talking actual code here, not super-sophisticated
>> standards).
>> 
>> Regards,
>> /bert
>> 
>> 
>> 
>