Using periods/dots within file names

[Genevieve D.]

Please help end a debate for me. I have been taught to not use a dot or
period within a file name and that the only dot or period should be before
the file extension. Is this still the case or can you use multiple dots
within a file name (e.g. "Letter.ACMEparts.May2008.doc")? Thanks.

 

[clintonG]

My partner and I have used and successfully tested what I created and refer
to as the Dot Notation File Naming Schema. We have tested with Google and
Microsoft search as well as with the Windows file system. I have yet to find
any RFC which presumes to limit the use of dotted notation in a file name.
In fact the schema I have developed is expected to be published for use by
the public sometime late this summer of early fall. We make no
claims --yet-- that doing so will improve SEO as we are still testing that
premise.

When you do something radical like --think about it-- you can point out to
the idiot(s) misleading you that limiting the usage to a single dot used to
delineate a file name would equivocate to implying we could not have domain
names such as
narrow.minded.idiots.are.a.dime.dozen.com/do.not.suffer.fools.wisely.aspx.

Have fun with your "descriptive" naming noting the only legitimate and
required limits are those imposed by the file system which limits the total
number of alphanumeric characters in the string used to name a file noting
the . character counts as one character just as any other character and is
no different as a legitimate character used multiple times than characters
such as [a-zA-Z0-9] or any other character the file system supports.

Finally, I'm so old I fart dust and have been around since day one. As I
recall even the 8.3 file naming convention allowed us to delineate file
names using any number of dots (periods) noting we only had 8 characters to
work with for the name so doing so was not as practical as we can now take
advantage of on the Windows file system which support 256 characters in a
file name.

There were and may continue to be long file name issues when such files are
put onto CD-ROM and DVD. It was true some time ago but I am not current on
that context and no longer use Windows for Workgroups 3.1 ;-0. I am
confident of what I explain for use on the web and the Windows file system
as I have tested and proven it. Go forth and creatively name in confidence.

<%= Clinton Gallagher

 

[Alan Gillott]

I can only refer you to the Porter's scene in Macbeth: the answer to your
question can only be equivocal. In principal you can use extraneous dots
throughout the file name: folder names such as ABC.DOC exist without
problems. The difficulty lies in the final file name which, again, in
principal, can be multiply dotted except that there is still a lot of
software about that was written in the year dot (pun intended) before the VB
FileSystemObject appeared that provided assorted file decoding assists for
isolating the name and extension etc. The old routines searched forward for
the extension dot instead of backwards - so, if you are confident that you
will meet no dinasaur software artifacts in the life of your file
go.have.fun.with.dot.
A