Subj : Re: ANSI Art Packs
To   : Apam
From : AKAcastor
Date : Mon Apr 01 2024 11:36 am

 a> Of course, an issue might be coming up with the 8.3 
 a> filenames so they don't clash with other files that 
 a> might have already been hatched, i guess you'd have to keep track of that.

Since we're discussing ideas - does anyone have suggestions for how to automate creation of short filenames from long names?  I'm sure there's no perfect solution, but maybe someone has something better than 'just take the first 8 letters of the filename'.

I have some idea how to script the rest but "what name to give the files" has me a bit stumped.

I'm partial to the idea of embedding the original, unmodified, zip with a long filename inside an 8.3 filename .zip, and copying the file_id.diz into the new zipfile.  This keeps the original filename intact.

Managing the 'replaces' line in the tic file will be another question.  But I think in most cases, the files in question are added to collections rather than being updates to existing files, so I think 'replaces' is a less pressing issue.

 a> It sounds like a bit much hassle to me.. artpacks etc 
 a> are nice to have and all, but perhaps if they're named 
 a> in long filenames, people who use tic processors that 
 a> only accept short filenames, can just filter them out 
 a> and download the art packs themselves and add them to 
 a> their bbses, it's not like these files being hatched are 
 a> very hard to get by other means.

I agree with this also, plus at least in my case I have to manually set a file description if I want something readable as most of the file_id.diz in artpacks are unreadable on my BBS.

While I don't see this as a pressing issue, I am interested in finding possible ways to automate this - spending inordinate amounts of time on silly tech challenges is basically why I'm here.  ;)


Chris/akacastor

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