Re: Change case on a filename in wc under Windows?

Rusk, Patrick wrote:
> FWIW, changing the case on a rename worked from both Windows Explorer and
> the command prompt under Windows 2000, and I'm quite sure it does under
> Windows XP.
>

Sorry, you're right, I was misremembering NT's limitations. This, however,
demonstrates the problem for Subversion:

C:\Temp>copy somefile.txt d:\temp\
         1 file(s) copied.

C:\Temp>rename somefile.txt Somefile.txt

C:\Temp>dir Some*
<snip>
12/18/2003 05:30p 7 Somefile.txt

C:\Temp>copy Somefile.txt d:\temp\
Overwrite d:\temp\Somefile.txt? (Yes/No/All): y
         1 file(s) copied.

C:\Temp>dir d:\temp\Some*
<snip>
12/18/2003 05:30p 7 somefile.txt

> As far as being stupid, it's a very easy argument to make and defend that
> it's aesthetically pleasing to preserve mixed case, but more friendly to
> users to not require it.

Except that the problem typically arises from _applications_ which do pay
attention to capitalization (in order to be consistent on all platforms).
Specifically, Java source files must have the same capitalization in the files
system as they do in all files which reference their classes.

What I find stupid is that NTFS _does_ include POSIX support (at least enough so
that they could claim that it is POSIX compatible), and hence should be able to
be used in a case-sensitive fashion. Sadly, M$loth system libraries are not
POSIX compliant and you can destroy your drive (i.e. the only way to recover is
to fdisk and restore a backup), if you mix the POSIX and case-preserving modes.

John

-- 
John Peacock
Director of Information Research and Technology
Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group
4501 Forbes Boulevard
Suite H
Lanham, MD  20706
301-459-3366 x.5010
fax 301-429-5748
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