Re: [boost] [1.36.0] Final requirements for directory and file names

From: James Talbut (James.Talbut_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-07-04 02:52:42

I just want to point out some issues with allowing upper case letters.
These aren't showstoppers, just potential points of pain.

1. Samba can be configured to convert everything to lower case.
   Of course, you can blame samba (or the sysadmin) for this, but it's
an issue you never hit with all lower case.
2. Visual Studio has a different understanding of the case of a file
from the filesystem.
   So again, Visual Studio can change the case.
3. Mercurial can get seriously confused if the case of a file changes.
4. gcc processes header files in a case sensitive way (presumably
because the filesystem does).
   Already I have difficulty remembering whether it's <boost/thread.hpp>
or <boost/threads.hpp>.
   Please don't make this worse by adding two more options (and I dread
to think how many options it would add to a multi-word header file
name).
   Plus, of course, having files change case will break existing
includes.

I would go along with Beman's statement ("By convention, file and
directory names are all lower case unless there is a compelling reason
to use a different convention for a specific name.") but I think it
should be enforced by using an exclusion list (with Jamfile as the only
entry in it).

Jim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: boost-bounces_at_[hidden] 
> [mailto:boost-bounces_at_[hidden]] On Behalf Of Beman Dawes
> Sent: 03 July 2008 23:07
> To: boost_at_[hidden]
> Subject: Re: [boost] [1.36.0] Final requirements for 
> directory and file names
> 
> Vladimir Prus wrote:
> > Beman Dawes wrote:
> > 
> >> Vladimir Prus wrote:
> >>> Beman Dawes wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> The final requirements for directory and file names are 
> now posted 
> >>>> at 
> >>>> 
> http://beta.boost.org/development/requirements.html#Directory_struc
> >>>> ture
> >>> Hmm, lowercase filenames? I hope you are not suggesting to go and 
> >>> rename every "Jamfile" to "jamfile"?
> >> No, we've always made an exception for that.
> >>
> >>> Which filesystems, exactly, require single-case 
> filenames, how many 
> >>> bug reports from users of those filesystems we've got, and what 
> >>> market share do those filesystem have today?
> >> The problems I've seen aren't with file systems, but with programs 
> >> that partially enforce ISO-9660:1999.
> > 
> > The footnote sounds like filesystems are the issue:
> > 
> >         Some legacy file systems require single-case names. 
> Single-case 
> >         names eliminate casing mistakes when moving from 
> case-insensitive
> >         to case-sensitive file systems.
> > 
> >> The other issue is consistency; what does the convention become?
> > 
> > Well, there are very few files that are traditionally spelled in 
> > anything by lowercase. I think saying that header files must be in 
> > lowercase, and that source files should be in lowercase, is enough.
> 
> Or perhaps "By convention, file and directory names are all 
> lower case unless there is a compelling reason to use a 
> different convention for a specific name."
> 
> We don't have any mechanical way of enforcing that, but at 
> least it gives clear guidance. We can check, however, that a 
> directory doesn't contain two names that differ only in case.
> 
> What do others think of this approach?
> 
> --Beman
> 
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