Case sensitive file names

[Guest Moderator, John B. Chambers]

Date: Sat, 4 Oct 86 04:19:12 CDT
From: dutoit!dmr at research.UUCP
Subject:  Case sensitive file names

The suggestion that POSIX be required (worse, permitted) to conflate
cases in file names is utterly loony.  We have enough portability
problems already in reconciling System V with 4.x without trying to
make Unix compatible with MS-DOS.

It is granted that Stu Feldman committed a rare lapse of taste in
accepting both `makefile' and `Makefile' (thus dooming everyone to
typing `cat ?akefile') and that Fowler apparently compounded the
distinction to the point of felony by encouraging both kinds of
?akefiles to exist and have different meanings.

Nevertheless, neither the possibility of silliness in choosing file
name conventions nor the dubious advantages of permitting Unix to be
embedded in other systems are relevant; what is important is that such
a subtle yet central change would be certain to make transport of
programs and of files more onerous.  This is not a wise thing for an
endeavor devoted to promoting portability.

	Dennis Ritchie

Volume-Number: Volume 7, Number 19