Mail Archives: opendos/1997/05/29/05:43:22
On Wed, 7 May 1997, randir wrote:
> In My Oh So Humble Opinion, I feel that many of the people who are
> pro-pro case sensitivity are trying to do something horrible.
>
> Sure a lot of good hearted Linux / Unix people are going to be using
> OpenDOS at first, but I think part of the point is to appeal to a
> larger audience.
>
> Case sensitivity just makes it that much harder to type things, and
> simply gets annoying. I would hate to see my grandmother typing in
> things on her 286 running OpenDOS and can't get something to work
> because the file name is: IluvNANA.txt
>
> and she just keeps typing iluvnana.txt...
THEN SHE WOULD TAKE THE DEFAULT CASE INSENSITIVE STANDARD FAT
INSTALL AND WOULD NOT GO THROUGH THE ADVANCED OPTIONS SCREEN AND
PICK EXT2 AND CASE SENSITIVITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GEEZE!!!!!!!!! Don't you people respect the word OPTIONAL!!!!!!
And the phrase "NAME MANGLER"?????????
I get sick of these incessant posts that are ignorant of the
technical details behind filesystems, and use the "I don't want
Linux, if you do then use Linux" argument.
If you sent your gramma a file called "IluvNANA.txt" on a floppy,
the name mangler on your system would have put something like:
ILUVN_OE.001 on the floppy because the floppy is FAT and isn't
case sensitive, then when she put it on her FAT drive she
wouldn't have any problem. If someone installed case sensitivity
on her system, then they would be to blame for pulling the cruel
joke. The rest of the DOS world and programming community should
not be limited because some stupid user enables a bunch of
optional advanced options that they don't understand.
> If people do start messing around with a better file system,
> it should remain as simple and easy to use...
Well, since VFS is likely to be used, there will be many file
systems to choose from, including standard plain old case
insensitive FAT. Use it, and it will be so simple that you can
tell all your friends!
> longer file names? good (if more.com is part of the dir command)
MORE.COM is part of the dir command. Hehehehe. Funny.
DIR /P
Someone using ext2 would know what to do or they shouldn't be
using it.
I think that their should be a built in intelligence test to
enter the advanced options screen. Some mathematical questions
such as:
You have requested to enter the OpenDOS advanced options screen.
To minimize technical support costs/time we have implemented an
idiot proof intelligence test which you must pass to change
advanced options.
Please multiply the following 2 hexadecimal numbers and provide
an answer as a 32bit hex number. You have 20 seconds:
4BE3
x E5D7
----
Answer: ________
Ok, you've passed phase one. Phase two: Please convert the
following base 23 number into decimal.
4LE8F83ME39D
Now for phase three, the final phrase:
Name an infamous Finnish computer god: L____ T______
Ok, the intelligence checker has determined that you are worthy
of the advanced options, and are unlikely to drool on your
keyboard. You may now use the advanced features and filesystems,
and will never be issued this test again when running setup.
> case sensitive display? maybe (if it doesn't matter what you type)
Simple: use VFAT, NTFS, or HPFS as your native filesystem, or
develop a new filesystem to do it in a better way. Since new
filesystems will be able to be dropped in, it will be compatible.
> But there are problems with doing this, in that there are
> a lot of DOS programs out there that will have fits as they
> try to read file names... so until we get copies of
> Professional Write for DOS with long file names.. it ain't
> gonna matter much at all.
That is where you are wrong. Read the mailing list archives. Do
a keyword search for "name mangling". Windows 95 has long
filenames. Do DOS programs fail on W95's long filenames? No.
The 95 name mangler sucks though, mach is much better.
Mike A. Harris | http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris
Computer Consultant | Coming soon: dynamic-IP-freedom...
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