Re: Case-sensitivity in Terminal.app and X11 xterm (fwd)
Re: Case-sensitivity in Terminal.app and X11 xterm (fwd)
- Subject: Re: Case-sensitivity in Terminal.app and X11 xterm (fwd)
- From: Sean Ahern <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 10:17:38 -0800
Martin Greenwood wrote:
> Try doing telephone technical support with a remote customer who having
> to type mixed-case filenames into a command line and who speaks a
> different language from you.
>
> After a few hours you will wish that all file systems were case
> insensitive!!
Hear hear! Average Joe User does not want a case-sensitive file system.
Really. I don't want to have to worry about capitalization when I call my
Dad and tell him how to mail "picture.JPG". Or was that "Picture.jpg"?
As a programmer, I was initially very resistent to the idea that
"Picture.jpg" was the same thing as "picture.jpg". I mean, "p" and "P" are
different values in a character set!
But I came up with an analogy that helps me explain it to others and
justify it to myself. Imagine that you had a filesystem that was
font-sensitive. Where "Picture.jpg" in Times Roman was a different file
than "Picture.jpg" in Courier. "They're different representations!"
someone might say, justifying the distiction. But, really, you don't care
what font a filename is shown in. It doesn't matter. You can think of
capitalization the same way. It's just a cosmetic difference in how the
"name" of the file is shown. Forget the concept of an index into a
character set. That's looking at it from a technical point of view, not a
user's point of view.
-Sean
__
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