Jared Hardy wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 1:47 PM, Les Mikesell <lesmikesell_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>> I think I'm being realistic. Ignoring the case in filenames is about
>> the same as ignoring the colors of a traffic light.
>
> I hate to quibble over such small things, but I must disagree with
> this statement. Different character cases in strings are much more
> like the difference between red and magenta (if you want to use the
> color analogy).
Not when they hit a case sensitive filesystem. There, they are simply
different characters.
> In different contexts, those two colors can appear to
> be exactly the same. It's only when you stack them directly on top of
> each other, in the same (flat) lighting conditions, that the
> differences become more apparent.
This is precisely why the person using them needs to more sensitive to
the difference, not encouraged to ignore it. If you aren't aware of the
difference and the consequences you'll have a disaster when you move to
a platform where it matters, creating files that don't match their
references going one way or overwriting files with another's contents
going the other.
> Traffic lights were intentionally designed with the greatest
> possible contrast. Even then, to accomadate the color-blind members of
> human society, they had to standardize the regular spatial separation
> and relative positions (spaced, vertical), to be perceived properly in
> general. Text case does not represent the same contrast -- it is
> highly contextual. It's the same reason some pre-Internet grandparents
> seem to have a tendency to keep the caps-lock on, and SHOUT at
> everyone, in forums or e-mail. They don't see the difference, at all.
Well, no... that was because this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASR33
only had an uppercase ASCII character set.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell_at_gmail.com
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Received on 2008-03-24 23:25:41 CET