File names

[Robert Howlett]

Taco Hoekwater wrote:

> file names are really strings. If they are read from a token list, the
> list is printed to the pool first. The name is ended by cat10, so if
> you can find a way to get space cat12 in the string, spaces in
> filenames are legal.
> 

I've tried fiddling with catcodes to get TeX to input
a file whose name contains spaces, and so far I've failed.
Can anyone else figure out a way to do this?

My experimentation suggests that when TeX is reading a file name
it continues on expanding things until it finds a space
(or other thing of category 10) or an unexpandable control sequence.
Is this right? Is it the same on all platforms?

The spaces-in-filenames culture is probably unstoppable; so I'm
inclined to think that TeX should accommodate it, e.g. by allowing
file names in quotes. 

Bob Howlett