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Re: Re: Ignore patterns should not be case sensitive (usability)

From: Erik Huelsmann <ehuels_at_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:18:45 +0100

On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 9:09 PM, Reedick, Andrew <jr9445_at_att.com> wrote:
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jared Hardy [mailto:jaredhardy_at_gmail.com]
> > Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 3:25 PM
> > To: users_at_subversion.tigris.org
> > Subject: Re: Ignore patterns should not be case sensitive (usability)
> >
> >
> > While I like the amusing subtlety of the suggestion here, I think a
> > lot of this discussion is ignoring the basics of good interface
> > design. Useful defaults are very important to all interfaces, even
> > command-line tools -- especially when appealing to a broad user base.
> > Most (if not all) users try to avoid files having the same name with
> > mixed case, and by the same token don't think about case when writing
> > comparison rules. In Windows, they don't even really have a choice in
> > the matter, so all features that favor case-insensitivity there should
> > be enabled at all times, regardless of user preference. Even in my
> > C/++ programming, I tend towards case-insensitive string comparison
> > routines by default. Forcing humans to be that consistent, about
> > something as subtle as case, is just a fool's errand.
> > So, I'm obviously biased here, maybe in part from dealing with
> > artists as my primary users. I just tend to think case-insensitivity
> > should be the default for ALL user facing string operations,
> > especially with something as arbitrary as file names.
> >
>
>
> I would have to agree with case insensitive globs/regexes by default.
> Subversion is OS independent, so why should it favor one OS's paradigm
> over another? Given how we frequently we throw out the mantra "it's a
> social problem, not a tool problem," it would make sense to choose 'case
> insensitive' globs/regexes by default, since that would favor average
> humans.

I'd like to point out all this discussion is moot: the current
interface for svn:ignore doesn't allow for case-insensitive patterns
other than the glob ones already provided.

The svn:ignore property is a public interface, meaning that we can't
change it until 2.0. Adding more properties which 'do almost the same'
is definitely out of line with anything the Subversion developers have
done so far and probably only serves to confuse.

Bye,

Erik.

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Received on 2008-03-24 21:19:09 CET

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