directory and file names with blank spaces

[Christina Thiele]

Stephen Curran writes:
>
> I have been using Y&Y Tex version 2.2 on both office and home computers.
> I have run into the situation that when a directory or file name of a
> TeX file that I want to convert to a DVI file contains a blank space,
> Y&Y Tex cannot find the file. It tries to append .tex to the first
> occurrence of a directory name or file name with a blank space. When I
> enter the file name after the prompt, it produces a DVI file as
> expected. I find this incredibly annoying. I have the luxury of  using
> underscores instead of blank spaces in directory or file names on my
> home computer. This is not the case for my office computer. The tech
> support staff have all staff and faculty store files on a directory
> named "My documents and files" for remote backup purposes.
>
> How does one resolve this problem?
>
> Stephen Curran
>
>

The smaller user manual discusses this point on p.24, 2nd full
paragraph. And yes, this is not Y&YTeX-specific but TeX-specific:

   ``Note that TeX itself cannot deal with file names that contain
     spaces.''

The Technical Addendum discusses this in section 5.2.4, last paragraph
(p.66).

So the behaviour you're seeing is quite correct. Albeit annoying. The
advice in the manuals is to simply avoid including spaces in file
names. Or path names.

But perhaps there's someone else on the list who's run into the same
problem vis-a-vis backups and the decisions of a larger technical
support staff (e.g., not oneself ;-( ) and found a reasonable/workable
solution?

Ch.