On Jan 3, 2006, at 9:50 PM, Tom Anderson wrote: > On Tue, 3 Jan 2006, Dan Sommers wrote: > >> On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 15:21:19 GMT, >> Doug Schwarz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >>> Strictly speaking, it's not OS X, but the HFS file system that is >>> case >>> insensitive. > > Aaah, of course. Why on earth didn't Apple move to UFS/FFS/whatever > with > the switch to OS X? > >>> You can use other file systems, such as "UNIX File System". Use >>> Disk >>> Utility to create a disk image and then erase it (again, using Disk >>> Utility) and put UFS on it. You'll find that "touch foo FOO" will >>> create two files. >> >> You may also find some native Mac OS X applications failing in >> strange >> ways. > > Oh, that's why. :(
That's one reason, but here are two more: 1. It would have broken the expected behavior from the previous 15 years of Mac OS releases. Given Mac users' obsessive attention to detail regarding the consistency of their environment, this would *not* have gone over well at all. 2. Mac OS is designed primarily for non-technical users. A case- sensitive filesystem would just be confusing for the main audience. If I tried to explain to my mother that Dan.doc is not the same as DAN.DOC, she would probably tell me I was out of my mind. Think about it - how many things used by average people are case sensitive? Passwords? That's about it. (And judging by most user passwords I have seen, they're almost all lowercase anyway.) Email addresses, URLs, the search box in Google, your AOL or Jabber buddy list: all case-insensitive. Aside from that, what is "right" is a matter of opinion. I prefer case-insensitive filesystems, and I'm a system administrator who works on Solaris systems all day. Others I work with refuse to consider case-insensitive filesystems as anything but a "bug". Who's right? I don't think there's one true answer... I'm not trying to get into one of these case sensitivity religious wars here, just offering an opinion. -dan -- For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three. -Alice Kahn -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
