Comments on: Linux/Unix Case Sensitivity

By: Rabbit

Rabbit — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:49:12 +0000

You know, a bit of advice I’ve heard a few times is that the best way to get into a good computer sciences programme at university is to have good English marks; being great at maths and sciences often isn’t enough. Most businesses consider good English and communication skills a lot more important than a lot of hackers seem to think they are, and it really shows. Guys, come on, I know this is shocking, but English /is/ case sensitive. Sure you can look at “jOHN wHATEVER sMiTh” and know that it’s more or less equivalent to “John Whatever Smith,” but if you know what you’re doing, you’d also be able to immediately tell that the former is definitely wrong, in the context of the English language. It’s just as incorrect as “john whatever smith.” UNIX has always been for people who knew what they were doing, or who would at least bother to learn how.

By: Some Shit

Some Shit — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 08:48:00 +0000

You assume that case insensitivity is easy because you speak English. If you speak other languages, you would realize that case insensitivity is hard. What happens when I have “heße.txt” on my hard drive but I type in the capitalized “HESSE.TXT”? Is Bjork the same as Björk? (Hint: depends on the language.) Unix was always designed for people who knew what they were doing, people who like case sensitive systems. And if you run a web site, you can just correct the URL’s spelling with a redirect (Apache’s mod_spelling). What a waste of hot air.

By: Vudro

Vudro — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:14:00 +0000

Computer is much more far from people than you think. Only previous knowledge lets us operate with GUI, press buttons and checkboxes, etc., although we think it is very easy and should be understood by anyone (try to explain it some1 who havent experience with PCs, will be shocked by “dumbness”).

Now, why case sensitive is better. Simply because it reflects basic computer paradigm: each letter, digit, special symbol is different character. If people will get used to this (in my opinion, very simple) idea, they will get a very big step closer to PC. It pays off to get closer to PC IF it is easy. In this case it is easy. In other words, it important thinking habit. If someone is totally unhappy with Unix style filenames, use other OS. Or use ciopfs. But don’t touch fundamentals.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:38:57 +0000

I’ve heard both side to this argument over the years. I think that many people underestimate how hard it is to get computers to understand human language. Case sensitivity is a western concept, and is not common to all languages. Even the term “uppercase” and “lowercase” stem from printing standards that date back just six hundred years. The ancient civilizations didn’t have capital letters, and many languages don’t have the concept either.

It should make people feel better to know that file systems are already an antiquated technology anyway. Storing “documents” in “folders” was an inexact model which arrived to give more flexibility to the systems and help the non-technical user to understand what was being asked of them. It’s on it’s way out.

The answer to the URL case sensitivity is that no one is supposed to be typing them in. If you are typing them in and you not using a search engine or index, you’re working too hard.

By: graiz

graiz — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:51:20 +0000

Mark, of course they are not the same thing. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have upper and lower case files and file names. I am saying that the OS should allow you to type the wrong case and still find the file.

By: Mark A. Flacy

Mark A. Flacy — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:20:35 +0000

I hate to tell you this, but “Polish” and “polish” are two different things.

By: Anon Emouse

Anon Emouse — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:12:08 +0000

The programming language is case sensitive. Great. The FILESYSTEM should NOT be case sensitive, period. Why? Because the real-world, the usability, the English language of NAMES and oh, did I mention USABILITY and the real world are NOT case sensitive. John Whatever Smith and jOHN wHATEVER sMiTh are *NOT* two different people. Come on.

By: If Only...

If Only... — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:17:47 +0000

In absolute agreement, ‘nix case sensitivty is not only a hassle for website end users (mistyping a URL), but also for developers.

Do I want to be forced into lowercasing all filenames and directories? No, not at all, but it’s the easiest way to deal with this ridiculous OS “feature” (read: handicap)

When I test in Windoze and OSX, no problem, can have /ExampleDir and code files as EasyToReadClassName.ext

Squinting to read through a directory with all lcased class files is a pain, but c’est la vie, ‘nix is free after all.

Anders idea of mounting the file system case sensitive is a good one.

By: Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:07:40 +0000

I don’t know of any application I’ve used in the last year that was case sensitive besides the NIX boxes that host a particular site at work and freakin NIX boxes on the web.

Who, seriously, are the individuals who defend this “preference”? It seems like quite a silly thing to stand behind. It must cause countless headaches when your average user has no idea why it is happening. That is the paramount issue with programmers who don’t code for people but rather code for their own principles.

I think it is that type of self-absorbed thinking that kept those operating systems from becoming more widely accepted. (Think Ubuntu or Vector – I realize linux is used EVERYWHERE in the business sector prob just because it’s free) It also causes people to overlook any benefits or qualities of the system simply because the developers can’t get their heads out of their asses long enough to ask their mother to use it for a day and see why she can’t stand it.

Phew.

By: carniver

carniver — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:35:30 +0000

Thanks for the blog. The *nix community’s stance on case sensitivity has always been that it’s hands down a good thing, when the truth is that only case preservation is good, while case sensitivity is, by *all* means, bad