- 2005.09.02
I have
a great many files which my publisher requires to be named in a
format like this: 3.2.4.thing.another. The Finder doesn't choke on
this or cause any problems due to "." extensions, but Spotlight
apparently cannot look for terms that begin with a number. To test
this, I created several files on my desktop.
- xylophone
- xylophone.creosote
- xylophone.creosote.prairie
- xylophone.creosote.prairie.lingo
- xylophone.creosote.prairie.lingo.1.2.3.4
- 1.xylophone.
and did spotlight searches. All of these terms were found except
for the last one (as the picture below shows). Curious, I did a
quick Google search on "spotlight fail" and came up with any number
of articles on the topic, including a really excellent, well
written article over at Macintouch (link below).
This article highlights several limitations in Spotlight
technology. I think Apple should address these in a future
revision, because if you can't trust your search program to
actually find files that exist on your hard drive, what good is it?
Certainly not good enough to spell the end of heirarchical file
organization and the desktop metaphor as has recently been touted
in the tech press.
At the very least, there ought to be a "deep search" function
not dependent on the Spotlight index, perhaps limited to filenames
if necessary.
is a longtime Mac user. He was using digital sensors on Apple II computers in the 1980's and has networked computers in his classroom since before the internet existed. In 2006 he was selected at the California Computer Using Educator's teacher of the year. His students have used NASA space probes and regularly participate in piloting new materials for NASA. He is the author of two books and numerous articles and scientific papers. He currently teaches astronomy and physics in California, where he lives with his twin sons, Jony and Ben.< And there's still a Mac G3 in his classroom which finds occasional use.
