[G4] Definative list of keyboard characters???

[Alex]

On Tuesday, Apr 6, 2004, at 14:41 Canada/Eastern, Don wrote:

> [...] Is there a definative list that shows
> what keyboard characters are allowed for file names on Macs? [...]

Don't confuse keyboard, characters, and file names.

The issue is actually a little more complex than it appears. 
Double-byte character complexity aside (Apple KB article ID 106553), 
certain characters may be legal, as far as the OS and the file system 
are concerned, but may cause some applications to fail. Keep in mind 
that Mac OS X is a schizophrenic wherein Mac and Unix must be 
reconciled, and it's not always easy.

If you wish to avoid possible trouble, there's a basic rule of the 
thumb: never use <null>, use only straight ASCII characters 
(essentially, characters which can be accessed on a standard US 
keyboard without the Option key), except the colon : and the solidus /, 
and don't use the period . as the first or last character. If you want 
to be even safer, or want to use the CLI, avoid illegal Unix 
characters: <blank space> ! @ # $ % ^ & ( ) { } ' " ? \ | ; < > + - .. 
Darwin is really quite forgiving about these, but enclosing filenames 
in quotes or using reverse solidus to prefix spaces gets tiresome 
pretty quickly when using Terminal.

f