Bug with unprintable characters

English support forum

Moderators: white, Hacker, petermad, Stefan2

Post Reply
Loren Pechtel
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 86
Joined: 2004-05-02, 01:50 UTC

Bug with unprintable characters

Post by *Loren Pechtel »

I was in China with my laptop. For some reason I forgot to install the East Asian languages on that machine.

I was asked to display some images on a flash drive. Oops--the directory name is undisplayable. I couldn't make Total Commander enter that directory. Windows itself was willing to (and note that Windows displayed more squares than Total Commander did for the filename) however.

Note that it's possible it was simply the Chinese in general but as I didn't have my XP CD along I couldn't install the language support to try it.
User avatar
Sheepdog
Power Member
Power Member
Posts: 5150
Joined: 2003-12-18, 21:44 UTC
Location: Berlin, Germany
Contact:

Post by *Sheepdog »

Try the use of cm_SwitchLongNames internal command (as button in the buttonbar or in TC Start menu). That will allow you to display those files with their 8.3 names and should make them accessable to you. Thus you should be able to rename the folder and after switching back to long names rename it with a name that fits the Windows standard and your desires.

sheepdog
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
Douglas Adams
Loren Pechtel
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 86
Joined: 2004-05-02, 01:50 UTC

Post by *Loren Pechtel »

Sheepdog wrote:Try the use of cm_SwitchLongNames internal command (as button in the buttonbar or in TC Start menu). That will allow you to display those files with their 8.3 names and should make them accessable to you. Thus you should be able to rename the folder and after switching back to long names rename it with a name that fits the Windows standard and your desires.

sheepdog
Renaming it back wouldn't have been possible--the filename used characters for which the language support wasn't installed.
User avatar
Sheepdog
Power Member
Power Member
Posts: 5150
Joined: 2003-12-18, 21:44 UTC
Location: Berlin, Germany
Contact:

Post by *Sheepdog »

Loren Pechtel wrote:Renaming it back wouldn't have been possible--the filename used characters for which the language support wasn't installed.
You're right with simple renaming. But when you copy those files the originally (unaccessible) filename will be destroyed. Thus you could actually rename the files back, after you copied them using the 8.3 names.

sheepdog
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
Douglas Adams
Loren Pechtel
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 86
Joined: 2004-05-02, 01:50 UTC

Post by *Loren Pechtel »

Sheepdog wrote:
Loren Pechtel wrote:Renaming it back wouldn't have been possible--the filename used characters for which the language support wasn't installed.
You're right with simple renaming. But when you copy those files the originally (unaccessible) filename will be destroyed. Thus you could actually rename the files back, after you copied them using the 8.3 names.

sheepdog
Actually the files in the directory had perfectly readable names--they were pictures from a digital camera. It was just the unprintable name kept me from getting into the directory at all.
User avatar
Sheepdog
Power Member
Power Member
Posts: 5150
Joined: 2003-12-18, 21:44 UTC
Location: Berlin, Germany
Contact:

Post by *Sheepdog »

Did you try to switch to 8.3 names already?

That should enable you to access the directory.

sheepdog
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
Douglas Adams
Kite
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 13
Joined: 2004-07-27, 12:45 UTC
Location: Ukraine

Post by *Kite »

I observe similar bug. I installed East Asian languages support, but in TC I can't enter to directory, which name consist some Unicode characters. I didn't try experiment with different Unicode names, but, for example, one Japanese program installed itself in folder 21 FF 29 FF 32 FF (hex). I can easy work with it in Explorer. In TC I can only rename it. "switch to 8.3 names" (cm_SwitchLongNames) doesn't help.
Some more, if during rename I add at the end symbol '\', then folder name will be converted... to ASCII :(
Loren Pechtel
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 86
Joined: 2004-05-02, 01:50 UTC

Post by *Loren Pechtel »

Sheepdog wrote:Did you try to switch to 8.3 names already?

That should enable you to access the directory.

sheepdog
I no longer have access to test it.
User avatar
ghisler(Author)
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 48021
Joined: 2003-02-04, 09:46 UTC
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Post by *ghisler(Author) »

You cannot access directories with a Unicode name if the directory doesn't have an English 8.3 name. However, you can rename such a directory with Total Commander with Shift+F6 (even if the characters aren't displayed correctly) to an English name.
Author of Total Commander
https://www.ghisler.com
Loren Pechtel
Junior Member
Junior Member
Posts: 86
Joined: 2004-05-02, 01:50 UTC

Post by *Loren Pechtel »

ghisler(Author) wrote:You cannot access directories with a Unicode name if the directory doesn't have an English 8.3 name. However, you can rename such a directory with Total Commander with Shift+F6 (even if the characters aren't displayed correctly) to an English name.
Ok, that's probably what I was hitting, it had nothing to do with the lack of the East Asian characters. I don't know how it would have gotten an 8.3 name given that it was originally named in Chinese.
User avatar
ghisler(Author)
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 48021
Joined: 2003-02-04, 09:46 UTC
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Post by *ghisler(Author) »

It's no problem as long as the directory is opened on the computer where it was created, or another computer using the same encoding. But when it was created on a Chinese computer and then opened on an English PC, then it will not work via the DOS name.

Full Unicode support is planned for TC after version 7, but it will require a lot of rewriting.
Author of Total Commander
https://www.ghisler.com
User avatar
Flint
Power Member
Power Member
Posts: 3487
Joined: 2003-10-27, 09:25 UTC
Location: Antalya, Turkey
Contact:

Post by *Flint »

ghisler(Author)
Full Unicode support is planned for TC after version 7, but it will require a lot of rewriting.
Wow! I'm going to be waiting for v7.5 already! :lol:
Flint's Homepage: Full TC Russification Package, VirtualDisk, NTFS Links, NoClose Replacer, and other stuff!
 
Using TC 10.52 / Win10 x64
User avatar
Lefteous
Power Member
Power Member
Posts: 9535
Joined: 2003-02-09, 01:18 UTC
Location: Germany
Contact:

Post by *Lefteous »

2Flint
I'm going to be waiting for v7.5 already!
Noone claimed something about 7.5 :mrgreen:
Post Reply