Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!convex!rosenkra From: rosenkra@convex.com (William Rosencranz) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: case insensitivity in TOS Message-ID: <1991Jan18.182651.21025@convex.com> Date: 18 Jan 91 18:26:51 GMT References: <1991Jan12.023029.20022@convex.com> <1991Jan18.005041.22961@convex.com> <1991Jan18.021445.4010@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> Sender: usenet@convex.com (news access account) Organization: Convex Computer Corporation; Richardson, TX Lines: 36 Nntp-Posting-Host: convex1.convex.com In article <1991Jan18.021445.4010@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> gl8f@astsun7.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) writes: >In article <1991Jan18.005041.22961@convex.com> rosenkra@convex.com (William Rosencranz) writes: > >>it would probably not break any existing code. if so, how? > >I wouldn't be surprised if lots of programs force filenames to all >upper or lower-case, because it's now legal and it makes them easier yes, but i also mentioned a (new) backward compatibility GEMDOS call (e.g. int Fcase(int on)) which could be called by the deskop (like toggling the blitter) to toggle do it/not do it. if on != 0, the the code to upcase in TOS would be bypassed. if on == 0, then it would be executed. i.e. business as usual. and (well-written) new programs could test the TOS version before making this call, just as they do with the new calls added to the Rainbow TOS. simple (i think...). surely THAT would not cause any existing code to break, at least for this reason. if u happen across a program that does not work, u always have the option of turning off case sensitivity. i believe there were probably codes which broke with the blitter turned on, but u have the option to turn it off in a similar fashion. we are not talking about a major change to TOS here, just a relatively small amount of additional code. but i agree that such a change should not be made if it breaks (important) existing code or just to please me :-). >Let's encourage Atari to give us something useful, like say one >big master-ROM-patch that would be updated frequently and contain all >the patches that all versions of the ROMs need. yes, this is a good idea. it would make it very easy to customize a system, too. -bill rosenkra@convex.com -- Bill Rosenkranz |UUCP: {uunet,texsun}!convex!c1yankee!rosenkra Convex Computer Corp. |ARPA: rosenkra%c1yankee@convex.com