Filename case-insensitivity on OS X

[Dan Lowe]

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 <see at sig.for.address.edu> 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

-- 
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of life, please press three.                   -Alice Kahn