On 07/02/2010 07:37 PM, William Blunn wrote:
They might decide to create folders thus:
"postfix-Mails" "exim-Mails" "dbox-Mails"
Oops. We just collided with the Special value.
In this case, I'll have to agree with Steve Jobs[0] and say: "Change your folders [sic] name. Not that big of a deal."
[0] http://thenextweb.com/2009/11/19/steve-jobs-small-developer-change-apps/
Since in a mailbox you will be inevitably storing mails, the -Mail part is unnecessary anyway.
Compare and contrast an alternative possibility "zgo0kq2njs". This is the uncommon character 'z' followed by nine random alphanumeric characters, for a total of 10 characters, and as such should have equal storage complexity to the original 10 ASCII character proposal "dbox-Mails". But it does not make any word or phrase in any language I know of.
This should make a better Special value because it should be less likely to collide with any normal value.
The same argument that you use to say that dbox-Mails should be allowed can be used to justify the need for a folder called "zgo0kq2njs". One just has to be more creative. :-)
And even if it's easy to type with command-completion, I doubt anyone would have a clue to the purpose of a folder named like this, unlike a folder with a descriptive name.
-- Nondeterminism means never having to say you are wrong.
Eduardo M KALINOWSKI eduardo@kalinowski.com.br