[fpc-pascal] FPC with case insensitive file system under Linux

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

On 24 February 2012 16:13, Henry Vermaak wrote:
>
> Because case sensitive systems don't create as much confusion.


Here my thoughts are the opposite. While backing up my data no an
external drive with is case insensitive I came across a lot of
possible issues I never realised I had on my case sensitive Linux file
system.

eg:
  In one source code directory I had files as follows:
       tiDefines.inc
       tidefines.inc

Backing this up to a case insensitive file system, I program prompted
me that the origin file was going to be replaced? So, looking at those
files on my Linux (case sensitive) file system, which one is actually
the latest version? To find out, I had to fire up Beyond Compare and
to a content comparison.

This actually happened quite a few times with many of my source code.
This all probably got introduced when I moved source code over from
Windows to Linux some 6 years ago.

Confusing now? Definitely! Did Linux warn me, nope. Does the compiler
know which one to actually use - no idea. How does Lazarus know which
one to open (because Lazarus searches for multiple case files) - no
idea?


Then lets look at it from an average user's point of view. Must they
really be confronted with multiple files in a single folder named:

   test.txt
   Test.txt
   Test.Txt
   TEST.TXT
   test.TXT
   ....

All the user wants to do, is open a "test dot t x t" file. Under Linux
they could be confronted with multiple versions? Very confusing.

I like to CamelCase my file names - it makes them easier to read in a
file listing. But when I reference them in say a search dialog, I'll
probably type them in all lowercase for speed reason. I would still
like Linux to find that file though - but it wouldn't.

As I, and it seems many others on the Internet, have found - there
really isn't a good reason why Linux must still use case sensitive
file systems. Windows supports multiple locales and has 95% of the
computer market - it doesn't have case sensitive file systems. Mac OS
X by default doesn't either (though they are nice enough to give you
the choice). I think Linux should give you the choice too.

Anyway, hopefully my newly formatted JFS partitions will sort this out.


>  At the end of the day, a computer thinks that "a" is 97 and "A" is 65, but
> what humans perceive is more complicated.

And a computer should serve a human, not the other way round.  Read
the excellent book "About Face 3".


-- 
Regards,
  - Graeme -


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