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Re: Changing the case of a filename?
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Re: Changing the case of a filename?


  • Subject: Re: Changing the case of a filename?
  • From: Mark T <email@hidden>
  • Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 03:59:02 -0400

Let me also say, that a case-insensitive file system is a brain-dead idea, and that whoever was responsible for it back in the mid-80's should be tortured with a resource fork applied repeatedly to a sensitive part of his anatomy.

Okay, this is kind of getting off the topic of Cocoa development... but I think that a case-insensitive file system is a great idea. The average not-technically-minded person (who is surely the kind of person the Macintosh is designed for) doesn't want to be trying to remember whether they had a capital letter in their file name, or which of several otherwise identical filenames in a folder is the one he/she wants to open. Perhaps a case-sensitive file system is helpful when using a case-sensitive development environment, but not in any other situation that I can think of. Personally, I don't particularly like case-sensitive programming languages either (although I'm still going to use them of course, it's not that big a deal) because it can be annoying trying to remember which variables/class names/methods etc have capital letters, and where. This is helped by the fact that there are usually conventions concerning whereTheCapitalsAre, but I still don't particularly like it.


I have to say that I agree. I can't think of a single situation where the usefulness of a case-sensitive filesystem would outweigh the drawbacks. What possible reason could you need for saving multiple files in the same directory with identical names, save for the capitalization? Names can be 255 letters long. Use different names! The only substantial argument for case sensitivity that I've heard is for backward compatibility with programs that are too "brain-dead" to manage without it.

Mark T.


  • Follow-Ups:
    • Re: Changing the case of a filename?
      • From: "John C. Randolph" <email@hidden>
    • Re: Changing the case of a filename?
      • From: j o a r <email@hidden>
    • Re: Changing the case of a filename?
      • From: Ondra Cada <email@hidden>
References: 
 >Re: Changing the case of a filename? (From: Angela Brett <email@hidden>)

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