filename encoding in Mac vs Windows

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Level 1

8 points

filename encoding in Mac vs Windows

Hello,

moving folders between a Mac OS X 10.7.3 (11D50) and a Windows 7 sp1, I see that in folder names the character 'à' is replaced by characters 'O¦ê' .

In the Mac I have as input sources "Swiss French" and as language English, then Italian, French etc etc.

In the Windows 7 I have as input language "Italian(Switzerland) - Swiss French" system locale "Italian (Switzerland)" and language "Italian (Switzerland)".

Both input sources and languages Swiss French and Italian(Switzerland) supports and are normally using the "à" characters, so I don't understand what's happening.

Plus, the file where the name has been changed, has originally been created in the Windows7 machine, copied to the Mac and never changed.

The same happens with file names...

😮

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.2), (11C74)

Posted on Feb 29, 2012 1:01 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,216 points

Feb 29, 2012 1:35 PM in response to Nicola F.

Is à the only accented character where you see this problem? I would expect that the different encodings used by the two platforms for filenames would result in more.

Input source choices have no bearing on thse encoding issues as far as I know, they only determine which key does what on the keyboard.

Could you perhaps clarify on which OS which see which version of the name? And how they are being moved between the platforms?

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Answer 2

Nicola F. Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 29, 2012 1:53 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Ok, after trying to move a file with accented characters and without noticing the issue, I remembered that I usually compress the folder/file before moving it...and ta-dah! ...yes, the problems is happening because of Archive Utility and on all accented characters (éàèöäü)...it seems that the archive utility does NOT support those characters...can it be ? 😕

Below you see the file after being compressed in Mac and the file as it was when I created it in Windows...I get the same problem if the file is created first in the Mac...

The issue is not related to the file system of the media I used to exchange the document (I was using a FAT sd memory card, but I have the same results sending it via email from one system to the other), so I think it's really caused by the Archive Utility :-(

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Answer 3

etresoft

Level 9

56,656 points

Feb 29, 2012 2:06 PM in response to Nicola F.

The Archive Utility is just creating ZIP files. ZIP files with non-ASCII characters might not be portable. ZIP was originally a PC file format. Try using a different Unzip tool on Windows.

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Answer 4

Nicola F. Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 29, 2012 2:18 PM in response to etresoft

If that's the case, since Archive Utility can only compress in ZIP format, should I use another zip/unzip tool on the Mac (7zip) ?

Is there a way to modify the context menu when right-clicking on a file in order to launch it with 'compress' ?

Anyway it's strange, because those characters are quite common for the languages I use (french, italian, german) and I never noticed such problems using different compression tools on win (winzip, winrar, 7zip) to create ZIP archives...

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Answer 5

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

122,216 points

Feb 29, 2012 3:39 PM in response to Nicola F.

Nicola F. wrote:

If that's the case, since Archive Utility can only compress in ZIP format, should I use another zip/unzip tool on the Mac (7zip) ?

Yes, I have seen 7zip and rar suggested as possible ways to get around the non-portability of zip when filenames include non-ascii characters.

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Answer 6

Nicola F. Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 1, 2012 3:00 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Ok, I'll do some other tests (using different utilities in Win and OS X) and then switch, if needed, to another compress utility on OS X.

I hope it's possibile to link the "compress" action in the context menu to another utility because it's a fast and very useful way to compress files and folders. 😎

btw I'd like to change the title of this discussion to "Archive Utility / ZIP portability issues" but it seems not possible...is it ? 😕

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