Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: linux issues

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 21:47:04 05/23/02

Go up one level in this thread


On May 23, 2002 at 21:12:41, Keith Evans wrote:

>On May 23, 2002 at 17:14:07, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On May 23, 2002 at 16:03:11, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>
>>>On May 23, 2002 at 11:15:14, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On May 23, 2002 at 01:31:56, Jeremiah Penery wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On May 23, 2002 at 01:16:44, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On May 22, 2002 at 22:08:45, Christophe Theron wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Filenames are case sensitive in Windows only for storing. When searching for
>>>>>>>filenames, the search is case insensitive. That's the best way to do it in my
>>>>>>>opinion.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Not in mine.  I want WCCCxxxx to mean something significant, since WCCC is
>>>>>>obviously an abbreviation for something.  wcccxxxx should (to me) be a
>>>>>>different file.  Otherwise, _why_ would I name one WCCCxxxx and the other
>>>>>>wcccxxxx and expect them to be the same?  Why not just type them the same
>>>>>>and it works.  IE if you don't like case-sensitive filenames, simply make
>>>>>>all your filenames lowercase and the problem is instantly solved, but
>>>>>>leaving the rest of us the option of using case sensitivity to do whatever
>>>>>>we want...
>>>>>
>>>>>He's not talking about saving a file with different case.  If a filesystem can
>>>>>do that, great.  But when you're _searching_ for a file, you should be able to
>>>>>search for "wccc..." and see a list with _both_ sets of files.  That is what
>>>>>Christophe is saying, and it makes way more sense to do it this way.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>This is already trivial to do using regular expressions.  Or anybody could
>>>>write their own "find" command that is case insensitive.  I did this inside
>>>>Crafty to match GM/IM names to adjust how crafty behaves.  And I found it
>>>>tedious to try to match strange combinations of upper and lower case letters,
>>>>so I simply mapped them all to lowercase _first_...
>>>>
>>>>But in Unix, if you are looking for files or strings in files, it is trivial
>>>>to make it case insensitive already.  Just study "regular expressions"...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>And here we get a good understanding of one of the problems that will keep Linux
>>>away from mainstream (and that's a pity).
>>>
>>>The file matching convention is user unfriendly (convince yourself by making a
>>>poll here for example), and the proposed solution for this problem is even more
>>>unfriendly (regular expressions, how am I going to explain that to my mother -
>>>she just wants to do word processing and email).
>>>
>>>That's all the Linux philosophy in a snapshot. It's just an example, but you can
>>>repeat the same pattern for many features of the OS.
>>
>>
>>That is not a "problem".  The problem is with the human.  Do you have control
>>over your fingers or not?  IE when you create filenames, do you have problems
>>with your little finger randomly tapping the <shift> key so that your filenames
>>have a mixture of upper and lower case letters?  If you do have such a problem,
>>why don't you get it fixed rather than demand that the computer ignore case
>>totally?  If you don't have such a problem, then why in the world would you
>>use uppercase letters in a filename when it requires extra keystrokes and slows
>>down typing speed?
>>
>>It's _gotta_ be that your little finger is out of control, as I can't see any
>>reason to create a filename by tapping the <shift> key and then when you go to
>>access the file, tapping the <shift> key again is a monumental imposition on
>>you this time around when it wasn't when you created the filename...
>
>You've just made Christophe's case. Christophe should print this out and tape it
>onto the wall in his computer room. Amazing... The logical next step is to get
>rid of computer monitors, keyboards,... since those are only there to get around
>the human problem - humans really should come with a ethernet jack built into
>their belly buttons ;-)
>
>P.S. I use Linux boxes at least 8 hours every working day, but keep them safely
>locked up in a computer room some distance from my desk.


If we go the windows way, we will only have one-way roads.  You aren't going
_that_ way?  just go the other way until you go all the way around the world
and get back to where you would prefer to go covering a much shorter difference.
But one-way fits all, right?

thankfully, not in unix.  You can have it _either_ way...



This page took 0.01 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.