"ocaml_beginners"::[] Lowercase file names convention

Lukasz> What is the motivation behind this convention, and if it is not
Lukasz> rational, can we promote uppercase names, that match module names?

I can't speak for the reasoning for OCaml in particular, but it's saving
you, and many others, from a world of pain: most Windows and Mac OS file
systems don't differentiate between case in filenames, while most *nix
file systems do. The result is that Win+Mac programmers can make
undetected errors in capitalisation in filename references when they're
writing code and build files, so the code won't build under *nix, and
*nix programmers occasionally (but mercifully not that often) release
software containing files whose name differs only in case, causing chaos
in the Win+Mac world. Worse, various archive programs and file systems
have historically had varying (from OS to OS) rules on handling of
capitalisation when files are created, stored or extracted, so you
couldn't always guarantee that a zip file extracted on *nix would have
the same case as it did under Windows. Also, witness Windows' confusing
rules regarding filename presentation: an all-caps filename containing
no spaces and matching the old DOS "8.3" format is presented with only
the first letter capitalised. Consequently when you see a file called
Readme.txt in Explorer, you don't know whether it's *really*
"README.TXT" or "Readme.txt"; on the disc.

So I suspect that OCaml's dictatorial attitude to capitalisation is
saving its users much potential pain. Be thankful

Conrad

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On 10/2/06, Conrad Hughes < conrad.hughes%40ed.ac.uk">conrad.hughesed.ac.uk> wrote:
&gt; Lukasz> What is the motivation behind this convention, and if it is not
> Lukasz> rational, can we promote uppercase names, that match module names?
&gt;
> I can't speak for the reasoning for OCaml in particular, but it's saving
&gt; you, and many others, from a world of pain: most Windows and Mac OS file
> systems don't differentiate between case in filenames, while most *nix
> file systems do. The result is that Win+Mac programmers can make
> undetected errors in capitalisation in filename references when they're
&gt; writing code and build files, so the code won't build under *nix, and
> *nix programmers occasionally (but mercifully not that often) release
&gt; software containing files whose name differs only in case, causing chaos
>; in the Win+Mac world. Worse, various archive programs and file systems

I don't think using names equivalent modulo captialisation is sane, I
just insist that CamelCase.ml matching my uses of CamelCase in sources
is much more elegant, and as a convention, would be more consistent.

Best Regards,
Lukasz

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