Error # 61

[Philip Burgess-2]

I'm running SPSS 20 on a 64bit Windows 7 machine (with 12 processors &
192 GB RAM).

I process a large (7 mill record file) with no issue until I try to save:

file handle     ActiveDir / name = 'D:\AMHOCN\Data\CMHC 2011'.
sav out         'ActiveDir\con.sav' .

>Error # 61 in column 10.  Text: ActiveDir\con.sav
>The filename is not valid.
>Execution of this command stops.

I stumbled (don't know how I got there) that if the file to save was
'cons.sav' - there was no issue and SPSS saved successfully (and the
sav file worked fine).

sav out         'ActiveDir\cons.sav' .

All that is different  is the name of the sav file - con vs. cons

(For interest, the 'con' file is an event file (service contacts) and
the database table is named 'con' - I wanted to maintain names between
the database tables and the SPSS analysis files I generate).

I'm puzzled. Any ideas?

Thanks;

Philip

[hidden email]

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[Jon K Peck]

I think you are encountering a legacy of the ancient DOS days.  Some things live forever, I guess.  con is/was the name of a built-in device in DOS for the console, along with lpt1 and a few others.  Trying to save to con.anything fails, whether it is SPSS or other software.  Try it in Notepad, for example (I used c:\temp\temp\con.txt) and you get a message like
con
This file name is a reserved device name
or
... already exists, do you want to replace it, followed by a cannot create error message


Jon Peck (no "h") aka Kim
Senior Software Engineer, IBM
[hidden email]
new phone: [phone]




From:        Philip Burgess <[hidden email]>
To:        [hidden email],
Date:        12/05/2012 08:16 AM
Subject:        [SPSSX-L] Error # 61
Sent by:        "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>

---

I'm running SPSS 20 on a 64bit Windows 7 machine (with 12 processors &
192 GB RAM).

I process a large (7 mill record file) with no issue until I try to save:

file handle     ActiveDir / name = 'D:\AMHOCN\Data\CMHC 2011'.
sav out         'ActiveDir\con.sav' .

>Error # 61 in column 10.  Text: ActiveDir\con.sav
>The filename is not valid.
>Execution of this command stops.

I stumbled (don't know how I got there) that if the file to save was
'cons.sav' - there was no issue and SPSS saved successfully (and the
sav file worked fine).

sav out         'ActiveDir\cons.sav' .

All that is different  is the name of the sav file - con vs. cons

(For interest, the 'con' file is an event file (service contacts) and
the database table is named 'con' - I wanted to maintain names between
the database tables and the SPSS analysis files I generate).

I'm puzzled. Any ideas?

Thanks;

Philip

[hidden email]

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

[J. R. Carroll-3]

Absolutely interesting - never knew this.

I looked this up and found:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/74496/en-us

(some of them are obvious).

Good to know, thanks Jon.

-J

----


J. R. Carroll

Independent Researcher through Hurtz Labs

Research Methods, Test Development, and Statistics

www.jrcresearch.net

Cell:  [phone]

Email: [hidden email]

          [hidden email]

          [hidden email]

On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 10:38 AM, Jon K Peck <[hidden email]> wrote:

I think you are encountering a legacy of the ancient DOS days.  Some things live forever, I guess.  con is/was the name of a built-in device in DOS for the console, along with lpt1 and a few others.  Trying to save to con.anything fails, whether it is SPSS or other software.  Try it in Notepad, for example (I used c:\temp\temp\con.txt) and you get a message like
con
This file name is a reserved device name
or
... already exists, do you want to replace it, followed by a cannot create error message


Jon Peck (no "h") aka Kim
Senior Software Engineer, IBM
[hidden email]
new phone: <a href="tel:[phone]" value="[phone]" target="_blank">720-342-5621




From:        Philip Burgess <[hidden email]>
To:        [hidden email],
Date:        12/05/2012 08:16 AM
Subject:        [SPSSX-L] Error # 61
Sent by:        "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>

---

I'm running SPSS 20 on a 64bit Windows 7 machine (with 12 processors &
192 GB RAM).

I process a large (7 mill record file) with no issue until I try to save:

file handle     ActiveDir / name = 'D:\AMHOCN\Data\CMHC 2011'.
sav out         'ActiveDir\con.sav' .

>Error # 61 in column 10.  Text: ActiveDir\con.sav
>The filename is not valid.
>Execution of this command stops.

I stumbled (don't know how I got there) that if the file to save was
'cons.sav' - there was no issue and SPSS saved successfully (and the
sav file worked fine).

sav out         'ActiveDir\cons.sav' .

All that is different  is the name of the sav file - con vs. cons

(For interest, the 'con' file is an event file (service contacts) and
the database table is named 'con' - I wanted to maintain names between
the database tables and the SPSS analysis files I generate).

I'm puzzled. Any ideas?

Thanks;

Philip

[hidden email]

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

[J. R. Carroll]

(sent with the wrong email - my apologies if you get this twice)

//

Absolutely interesting - never knew this.

I looked this up and found:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/74496/en-us

(some of them are obvious).

Good to know, thanks Jon.

-J

----


J. R. Carroll

Cell:  [phone]

Email: [hidden email]

          [hidden email]

          [hidden email]

On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 10:38 AM, Jon K Peck <[hidden email]> wrote:

I think you are encountering a legacy of the ancient DOS days.  Some things live forever, I guess.  con is/was the name of a built-in device in DOS for the console, along with lpt1 and a few others.  Trying to save to con.anything fails, whether it is SPSS or other software.  Try it in Notepad, for example (I used c:\temp\temp\con.txt) and you get a message like
con
This file name is a reserved device name
or
... already exists, do you want to replace it, followed by a cannot create error message


Jon Peck (no "h") aka Kim
Senior Software Engineer, IBM
[hidden email]
new phone: <a href="tel:[phone]" value="[phone]" target="_blank">720-342-5621




From:        Philip Burgess <[hidden email]>
To:        [hidden email],
Date:        12/05/2012 08:16 AM
Subject:        [SPSSX-L] Error # 61
Sent by:        "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>

---

I'm running SPSS 20 on a 64bit Windows 7 machine (with 12 processors &
192 GB RAM).

I process a large (7 mill record file) with no issue until I try to save:

file handle     ActiveDir / name = 'D:\AMHOCN\Data\CMHC 2011'.
sav out         'ActiveDir\con.sav' .

>Error # 61 in column 10.  Text: ActiveDir\con.sav
>The filename is not valid.
>Execution of this command stops.

I stumbled (don't know how I got there) that if the file to save was
'cons.sav' - there was no issue and SPSS saved successfully (and the
sav file worked fine).

sav out         'ActiveDir\cons.sav' .

All that is different  is the name of the sav file - con vs. cons

(For interest, the 'con' file is an event file (service contacts) and
the database table is named 'con' - I wanted to maintain names between
the database tables and the SPSS analysis files I generate).

I'm puzzled. Any ideas?

Thanks;

Philip

[hidden email]

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

[Art Kendall]

Most of the DOS devices and many of the conventions were the same as late-60;s Digital Equipment Company devices and conventions.
DEC      dos
tty: ==> tt:
con: == > con:
lpt1: ==> lpt1:
dska: ==> a:
copy ==> copy
pip  ==> pip
call ==> call
ren  ==> ren
del  ==> del
dir  ==> dir
type ==> type
name.ext ==> name.ext
dev:name.ext == > dev:name.ext
colon for device
/ for a switch

I fact when DOS came out I was able to pick it up fairly quickly because switches almost always appeared to be  RT-11 switches that instead of being spelled out were abbreviated to one letter. e.g.,
 /since ==> /s

On 12/5/2012 10:54 AM, J. R. Carroll wrote:

(sent with the wrong email - my apologies if you get this twice)

//

Absolutely interesting - never knew this.

I looked this up and found:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/74496/en-us

(some of them are obvious).

Good to know, thanks Jon.

-J

----


J. R. Carroll

Cell:  [phone]

Email: [hidden email]

          [hidden email]

          [hidden email]

On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 10:38 AM, Jon K Peck <[hidden email]> wrote:

I think you are encountering a legacy of the ancient DOS days.  Some things live forever, I guess.  con is/was the name of a built-in device in DOS for the console, along with lpt1 and a few others.  Trying to save to con.anything fails, whether it is SPSS or other software.  Try it in Notepad, for example (I used c:\temp\temp\con.txt) and you get a message like
con
This file name is a reserved device name
or
... already exists, do you want to replace it, followed by a cannot create error message


Jon Peck (no "h") aka Kim
Senior Software Engineer, IBM
[hidden email]
new phone: <a moz-do-not-send="true" href="tel:[phone]" value="[phone]" target="_blank">720-342-5621




From:        Philip Burgess <[hidden email]>
To:        [hidden email],
Date:        12/05/2012 08:16 AM
Subject:        [SPSSX-L] Error # 61
Sent by:        "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>

---

I'm running SPSS 20 on a 64bit Windows 7 machine (with 12 processors &
192 GB RAM).

I process a large (7 mill record file) with no issue until I try to save:

file handle     ActiveDir / name = 'D:\AMHOCN\Data\CMHC 2011'.
sav out         'ActiveDir\con.sav' .

>Error # 61 in column 10.  Text: ActiveDir\con.sav
>The filename is not valid.
>Execution of this command stops.

I stumbled (don't know how I got there) that if the file to save was
'cons.sav' - there was no issue and SPSS saved successfully (and the
sav file worked fine).

sav out         'ActiveDir\cons.sav' .

All that is different  is the name of the sav file - con vs. cons

(For interest, the 'con' file is an event file (service contacts) and
the database table is named 'con' - I wanted to maintain names between
the database tables and the SPSS analysis files I generate).

I'm puzzled. Any ideas?

Thanks;

Philip

[hidden email]

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

[Mike]

To be historically accurate, the MS-Dos device names and conventions were
based on CP/M, "Control Program/Microcomputer", which in turn were based
on the DEC conventions.  See the CP/M entry in Wikipedia from which the
following quote comes from:

|CP/M's command line interface was patterned after the operating systems
from
|Digital Equipment, such as RT-11 for the PDP-11 and OS/8 for the PDP-8.

and

|Many of the basic concepts and internal mechanisms of early versions of
MS-DOS
|resembled those of CP/M.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M

My first microcomputer was a Kaypro 4 which ran CP/M off of 5.25 inch
floppies
(and came with Wordstar, dbase II, Supercalc, Kermit, and other software).
Of course,
in my day job, I worked on Univac/Sperry (where I first learned how to use
SPSS
on a mainframe), IBM Wylbur/SuperWylbur/CMS, DEC Vaxen, and Sun Unix.

-Mike Palij
New York University
[hidden email]


----- Original Message -----
From: Art Kendall
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2012 11:32 AM
Subject: Re: Error # 61


Most of the DOS devices and many of the conventions were the same as
late-60;s Digital Equipment Company devices and conventions.
DEC      dos
tty: ==> tt:
con: == > con:
lpt1: ==> lpt1:
dska: ==> a:
copy ==> copy
pip  ==> pip
call ==> call
ren  ==> ren
del  ==> del
dir  ==> dir
type ==> type
name.ext ==> name.ext
dev:name.ext == > dev:name.ext
colon for device
/ for a switch

I fact when DOS came out I was able to pick it up fairly quickly because
switches almost always appeared to be  RT-11 switches that instead of being
spelled out were abbreviated to one letter. e.g.,
 /since ==> /s


Art Kendall
Social Research Consultants
On 12/5/2012 10:54 AM, J. R. Carroll wrote:

(sent with the wrong email - my apologies if you get this twice)


//


Absolutely interesting - never knew this.


I looked this up and found:


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/74496/en-us


(some of them are obvious).


Good to know, thanks Jon.


-J


----


J. R. Carroll
Cell:  [phone]
Email: [hidden email]
          [hidden email]
          [hidden email]








On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 10:38 AM, Jon K Peck <[hidden email]> wrote:

I think you are encountering a legacy of the ancient DOS days.  Some things
live forever, I guess.  con is/was the name of a built-in device in DOS for
the console, along with lpt1 and a few others.  Trying to save to
con.anything fails, whether it is SPSS or other software.  Try it in
Notepad, for example (I used c:\temp\temp\con.txt) and you get a message
like
con
This file name is a reserved device name
or
... already exists, do you want to replace it, followed by a cannot create
error message


Jon Peck (no "h") aka Kim
Senior Software Engineer, IBM
[hidden email]
new phone: [phone]




From:        Philip Burgess <[hidden email]>
To:        [hidden email],
Date:        12/05/2012 08:16 AM
Subject:        [SPSSX-L] Error # 61
Sent by:        "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>






I'm running SPSS 20 on a 64bit Windows 7 machine (with 12 processors &
192 GB RAM).

I process a large (7 mill record file) with no issue until I try to save:

file handle     ActiveDir / name = 'D:\AMHOCN\Data\CMHC 2011'.
sav out         'ActiveDir\con.sav' .

>Error # 61 in column 10.  Text: ActiveDir\con.sav
>The filename is not valid.
>Execution of this command stops.

I stumbled (don't know how I got there) that if the file to save was
'cons.sav' - there was no issue and SPSS saved successfully (and the
sav file worked fine).

sav out         'ActiveDir\cons.sav' .

All that is different  is the name of the sav file - con vs. cons

(For interest, the 'con' file is an event file (service contacts) and
the database table is named 'con' - I wanted to maintain names between
the database tables and the SPSS analysis files I generate).

I'm puzzled. Any ideas?

Thanks;

Philip

[hidden email]

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD






===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message
to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of
commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

[Albert-Jan Roskam]

I experienced something similar when I did a project about perinatal health, abbreviated as PRN (I couldn't even delete the file 'prn.sav'!). Ever since I kept this list of reserved words in a little txt file:

 

   CON     Keyboard and display
   PRN     System list device, usually a parallel port
   AUX     Auxiliary device, usually a serial port
   CLOCK$  System real-time clock
   NUL     Bit-bucket device
   A:-Z:   Drive letters
   COM1    First serial communications port
   LPT1    First parallel printer port
   LPT2    Second parallel printer port
   LPT3    Third parallel printer port
   COM2    Second serial communications port
   COM3    Third serial communications port
   COM4    Fourth serial communications port

 

Regards,
Albert-Jan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a
fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

From: Jon K Peck <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 4:38 PM
Subject: Re: [SPSSX-L] Error # 61

I think you are encountering a legacy of the ancient DOS days.  Some things live forever, I guess.  con is/was the name of a built-in device in DOS for the console, along with lpt1 and a few others.  Trying to save to con.anything fails, whether it is SPSS or other software.  Try it in Notepad, for example (I used c:\temp\temp\con.txt) and you get a message like
con
This file name is a reserved device name
or
... already exists, do you want to replace it, followed by a cannot create error message


Jon Peck (no "h") aka Kim
Senior Software Engineer, IBM
[hidden email]
new phone: [phone]




From:        Philip Burgess <[hidden email]>
To:        [hidden email],
Date:        12/05/2012 08:16 AM
Subject:        [SPSSX-L] Error # 61
Sent by:        "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>

I'm running SPSS 20 on a 64bit Windows 7 machine (with 12 processors &
192 GB RAM).

I process a large (7 mill record file) with no issue until I try to save:

file handle     ActiveDir / name = 'D:\AMHOCN\Data\CMHC 2011'.
sav out         'ActiveDir\con.sav' .

>Error # 61 in column 10.  Text: ActiveDir\con.sav
>The filename is not valid.
>Execution of this command stops.

I stumbled (don't know how I got there) that if the file to save was
'cons.sav' - there was no issue and SPSS saved successfully (and the
sav file worked fine).

sav out         'ActiveDir\cons.sav' .

All that is different  is the name of the sav file - con vs. cons

(For interest, the 'con' file is an event file (service contacts) and
the database table is named 'con' - I wanted to maintain names between
the database tables and the SPSS analysis files I generate).

I'm puzzled. Any ideas?

Thanks;

Philip

[hidden email]

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD