[tex-k] TeX finding filenames with spaces

[Olaf Weber]

Karl Berry writes:

>>> Can we afford for it to be always on (triptest/spirit-of-license-wise)?

> Filenames have always been system-dependent.  We can certainly allow
> 	\input "foo bar.tex"
> in base TeX without violating anyone's license, spirit or letter.

> We are not obliged to support all Unix shell conventions (which vary
> among shells anyway).  We get to decide what is reasonable and so it.
> \input "foo bar.tex" seems perfectly reasonable to me.

> I don't think it's necessary to go to the trouble of supporting both "
> and spaces simultaneously in filenames.  Although I certainly agree in
> theory that "all characters should be supported", it seems like way more
> work than it's worth.  Whereas putting the "..." patch into the main
> source is both simple and useful.

>> to devise a TeXish way of supporting them, perhaps {foo bar.tex} ?

> That we cannot do in core TeX, it changes the meaning of the \input
> primitive.

For these reasons it seems clear that if we're to support anything
along these lines, "..." is the way to go.

-- 
Olaf Weber

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