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Originally Posted by Stiebler
Concerning the use of copies of library files:
If this is true, then someone has had the bright idea of writing code that looks for key words in the file name, instead of the actual file name required. So 'Copy of sensors.dat' or 'sensorsold.dat' will be searched for the key word 'sensors'. This is pretty peculiar programming behaviour, since the first type of unwanted copy file 'Copy of' will appear first alphabetically but second in terms of file dating, while the second type of unwanted copy file 'sensordold.dat' will appear after the correct file both alphabetically and by time stamp. How can one make a sensible decision between these options? Presumably someone must have thought that it is better to have any file, than to risk having no file. But I just cannot believe that any programmer would not first look for the exactly right file!
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Hehe, take it from someone who's been a programmer and leader of large development teams for over 20 years - you'd be surprised what can happen behind the scenes! And there's lots of reasons why these things are done - some out of laziness, some out of anticipation of user "abuse".
Anyway, the "Copy of" file will maintain the original file's time/date stamp, so will be first if ordered by either date or name. Again though, this depends on how the application "calls" for the file.
BTW, SH3Cmdr implements such an approach - it recognises user added or user deleted files and adjusts accordingly - all without the knowledge or interest of the user (although it will differentiate between a copy of and original file). If it can't find the value in one location, it will look for it elsewhere, for, as you've stated, sometimes it is better to find a file with the values that you want than it is to be fickle about the file name.