Message-Id: <199705051203.OAA05811@grendel.sylaba.poznan.pl>
Comments: Authenticated sender is <grendel AT hoth DOT amu DOT edu DOT pl>
From: "Mark Habersack" <grendel AT hoth DOT amu DOT edu DOT pl>
Organization: PPP (Pesticide Powered Pumpkins)
To: evand AT scn DOT org
Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 14:04:13 +0100
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Subject: Re: A few FS notions
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CC: opendos AT delorie DOT com
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Once upon a time (on  1 May 97 at 10:00) Evan Dickinson said:

> > What I would like to request is:
> > - Node tree (versus FAT)
> > - Case sensitivity
> 
> Not being much of an UNIX user myself, I have to ask:  Why is a case
> sensitive filesystem an advantage?  I get frustrated when *.zip won't
> match SOMETHING.ZIP; I'm sure lots of other DOS users would, too.
Hmm... After working in Unix for a few years now (during all that time using 
DOS as well) I have found several reasons for case-sensivity. It reduces an 
amount of file extensions necessary to describe variations of one type of the 
file. If you're a programmer and have ever seen DJGPP (I assume you haven't 
used GCC under Unix), then you could have noticed that GCC compiler uses case 
to differentiate between various source types:

.s - "pure" assembler source
.S - assembler source which needs preprocessing
.c - C source code
.C - C++ source code
etc.

This reduces an amount of extensions and makes, IMO, things look much 
clearer.

2nd reason. Case sensitivity allows you to "stress out" meaning of certain 
files. With CS on, FS displays first the files starting with uppercase, then 
the others. That way you can put README.FIRST in your directory and be sure 
that the user will read it before reading readme.second.
======================================================
How much longer can I howl into this wind?
How much longer can I cry like this?
A thousand wasted hours a day just to feel my heart
   for a second... A thousand hours just thrown away
Just to feel my heart for a second
----