Folder names in SVN cannot contain dots and commas

We faced a strange issue today while trying to commit a folder in SVN. The folder was of the form ABC,DEF.GHI.JKL The command kept throwing an error Commit Failed. The most annoying part was - the reason why it failed was not conveyed to the end user at all!

Lesson for all us software developers: Always degrade gracefully and give proper reasons for it so that users can take corrective actions efficiently.

Mozilla ThunderBird setting to place reply text on top of email thread content

The default ThunderBird settings appends your reply to the end of the thread. To change this to put your reply contents Before the other content of the thread, please do the following:

1. Go to ThunderBird -> Tools Menu -> Options


2. Go to Advanced -> General -> Config Editor


3. In the warning box, click "I'l be careful, I promise" and really, be careful with the next steps


4. In the filter box, type reply


5. Look for the row with Preference name "mail.identitiy.default.reply_on_top". Change its value from 0 (default) to 1.

I always wonder why Mozilla does not keep it to 1 by default, though?