Allowed filename characters (and how Windows Explorer sorts them)

generate_files.py

import unicodedata

allowed = []
forbidden = []

folder = 'output/' # needs to be created beforehand
ext = '.txt'
for i in range(0, 256):
    letter = chr(i)
    try:
        with open(folder + letter + ext, 'w'): pass
        allowed.append(letter)
    except IOError as e:
        if e.errno == 22:
            forbidden.append(letter)
        else:
            raise e
    except TypeError:
        forbidden.append(letter)

ascii_names = {
    # Control characters (0-31)
    '\x00': 'Null char',
    '\x01': 'Start of Heading',
    '\x02': 'Start of Text',
    '\x03': 'End of Text',
    '\x04': 'End of Transmission',
    '\x05': 'Enquiry',
    '\x06': 'Acknowledgement',
    '\x07': 'Bell',
    '\x08': 'Back Space',
    '\x09': 'Horizontal Tab',
    '\x0A': 'Line Feed',
    '\x0B': 'Vertical Tab',
    '\x0C': 'Form Feed',
    '\x0D': 'Carriage Return',
    '\x0E': 'Shift Out / X-On',
    '\x0F': 'Shift In / X-Off',
    '\x10': 'Data Line Escape',
    '\x11': 'Device Control 1 (oft. XON)',
    '\x12': 'Device Control 2',
    '\x13': 'Device Control 3 (oft. XOFF)',
    '\x14': 'Device Control 4',
    '\x15': 'Negative Acknowledgement',
    '\x16': 'Synchronous Idle',
    '\x17': 'End of Transmit Block',
    '\x18': 'Cancel',
    '\x19': 'End of Medium',
    '\x1A': 'Substitute',
    '\x1B': 'Escape',
    '\x1C': 'File Separator',
    '\x1D': 'Group Separator',
    '\x1E': 'Record Separator',
    '\x1F': 'Unit Separator',
    # Printable characters (32-127)
    '\x7F': 'Delete', # ?
    # Extended codes (128-255), Windows-1252 (Latin-1)
    '\x80': 'Euro sign',
    '\x81': '',
    '\x82': 'Single low-9 quotation mark',
    '\x83': 'Latin small letter f with hook',
    '\x84': 'Double low-9 quotation mark',
    '\x85': 'Horizontal ellipsis',
    '\x86': 'Dagger',
    '\x87': 'Double dagger',
    '\x88': 'Modifier letter circumflex accent',
    '\x89': 'Per mille sign',
    '\x8A': 'Latin capital letter S with caron',
    '\x8B': 'Single left-pointing angle quotation',
    '\x8C': 'Latin capital ligature OE',
    '\x8D': '',
    '\x8E': 'Latin capital letter Z with caron',
    '\x8F': '',
    '\x90': '',
    '\x91': 'Left single quotation mark',
    '\x92': 'Right single quotation mark',
    '\x93': 'Left double quotation mark',
    '\x94': 'Right double quotation mark',
    '\x95': 'Bullet',
    '\x96': 'En dash',
    '\x97': 'Em dash',
    '\x98': 'Small tilde',
    '\x99': 'Trade mark sign',
    '\x9A': 'Latin small letter S with caron',
    '\x9B': 'Single right-pointing angle quotation mark',
    '\x9C': 'Latin small ligature oe',
    '\x9D': '',
    '\x9E': 'Latin small letter z with caron',
    '\x9F': 'Latin capital letter Y with diaeresis',
    '\xA0': 'Non-breaking space',
    '\xA1': 'Inverted exclamation mark',
    '\xA2': 'Cent sign',
    '\xA3': 'Pound sign',
    '\xA4': 'Currency sign',
    '\xA5': 'Yen sign',
    '\xA6': 'Pipe, Broken vertical bar',
    '\xA7': 'Section sign',
    '\xA8': 'Spacing diaeresis - umlaut',
    '\xA9': 'Copyright sign',
    '\xAA': 'Feminine ordinal indicator',
    '\xAB': 'Left double angle quotes',
    '\xAC': 'Not sign',
    '\xAD': 'Soft hyphen',
    '\xAE': 'Registered trade mark sign',
    '\xAF': 'Spacing macron - overline',
    '\xB0': 'Degree sign',
    '\xB1': 'Plus-or-minus sign',
    '\xB2': 'Superscript two - squared',
    '\xB3': 'Superscript three - cubed',
    '\xB4': 'Acute accent - spacing acute',
    '\xB5': 'Micro sign',
    '\xB6': 'Pilcrow sign - paragraph sign',
    '\xB7': 'Middle dot - Georgian comma',
    '\xB8': 'Spacing cedilla',
    '\xB9': 'Superscript one',
    '\xBA': 'Masculine ordinal indicator',
    '\xBB': 'Right double angle quotes',
    '\xBC': 'Fraction one quarter',
    '\xBD': 'Fraction one half',
    '\xBE': 'Fraction three quarters',
    '\xBF': 'Inverted question mark',
    '\xC0': 'Latin capital letter A with grave',
    '\xC1': 'Latin capital letter A with acute',
    '\xC2': 'Latin capital letter A with circumflex',
    '\xC3': 'Latin capital letter A with tilde',
    '\xC4': 'Latin capital letter A with diaeresis',
    '\xC5': 'Latin capital letter A with ring above',
    '\xC6': 'Latin capital letter AE',
    '\xC7': 'Latin capital letter C with cedilla',
    '\xC8': 'Latin capital letter E with grave',
    '\xC9': 'Latin capital letter E with acute',
    '\xCA': 'Latin capital letter E with circumflex',
    '\xCB': 'Latin capital letter E with diaeresis',
    '\xCC': 'Latin capital letter I with grave',
    '\xCD': 'Latin capital letter I with acute',
    '\xCE': 'Latin capital letter I with circumflex',
    '\xCF': 'Latin capital letter I with diaeresis',
    '\xD0': 'Latin capital letter ETH',
    '\xD1': 'Latin capital letter N with tilde',
    '\xD2': 'Latin capital letter O with grave',
    '\xD3': 'Latin capital letter O with acute',
    '\xD4': 'Latin capital letter O with circumflex',
    '\xD5': 'Latin capital letter O with tilde',
    '\xD6': 'Latin capital letter O with diaeresis',
    '\xD7': 'Multiplication sign',
    '\xD8': 'Latin capital letter O with slash',
    '\xD9': 'Latin capital letter U with grave',
    '\xDA': 'Latin capital letter U with acute',
    '\xDB': 'Latin capital letter U with circumflex',
    '\xDC': 'Latin capital letter U with diaeresis',
    '\xDD': 'Latin capital letter Y with acute',
    '\xDE': 'Latin capital letter THORN',
    '\xDF': 'Latin small letter sharp s',
    '\xE0': 'Latin small letter a with grave',
    '\xE1': 'Latin small letter a with acute',
    '\xE2': 'Latin small letter a with circumflex',
    '\xE3': 'Latin small letter a with tilde',
    '\xE4': 'Latin small letter a with diaeresis',
    '\xE5': 'Latin small letter a with ring above',
    '\xE6': 'Latin small letter ae',
    '\xE7': 'Latin small letter c with cedilla',
    '\xE8': 'Latin small letter e with grave',
    '\xE9': 'Latin small letter e with acute',
    '\xEA': 'Latin small letter e with circumflex',
    '\xEB': 'Latin small letter e with diaeresis',
    '\xEC': 'Latin small letter i with grave',
    '\xED': 'Latin small letter i with acute',
    '\xEE': 'Latin small letter i with circumflex',
    '\xEF': 'Latin small letter i with diaeresis',
    '\xF0': 'Latin small letter eth',
    '\xF1': 'Latin small letter n with tilde',
    '\xF2': 'Latin small letter o with grave',
    '\xF3': 'Latin small letter o with acute',
    '\xF4': 'Latin small letter o with circumflex',
    '\xF5': 'Latin small letter o with tilde',
    '\xF6': 'Latin small letter o with diaeresis',
    '\xF7': 'Division sign',
    '\xF8': 'Latin small letter o with slash',
    '\xF9': 'Latin small letter u with grave',
    '\xFA': 'Latin small letter u with acute',
    '\xFB': 'Latin small letter u with circumflex',
    '\xFC': 'Latin small letter u with diaeresis',
    '\xFD': 'Latin small letter y with acute',
    '\xFE': 'Latin small letter thorn',
    '\xFF': 'Latin small letter y with diaeresis',
}

def letter_name(char):
    try:
        return unicodedata.name(unicode(char))
    except ValueError:
        return ascii_names.get(char, '').upper()

def letter_repr(char):
    return repr(char)[1:-1]

def char_info(char_array):
    for l in char_array:
        yield '{:<4}  {:>3}  {:02X}  {}\n'.format(letter_repr(l), ord(l), ord(l), letter_name(l))

with open('output.txt', 'w') as file:

    file.write('**Allowed:**\n\n')
    for line in char_info(allowed):
        file.write(line)

    file.write('\n**Forbidden:**\n\n')
    for line in char_info(forbidden):
        file.write(line)