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From: rosenkra@convex.com (William Rosencranz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: case insensitivity in TOS
Message-ID: <1991Jan29.145346.10244@convex.com>
Date: 29 Jan 91 14:53:46 GMT
References: <KENTD.91Jan14172419@zappa.FtCollins.NCR.com> <1991Jan18.005041.22961@convex.com> <1991Jan22.170111.12465@cs.mcgill.ca> <1709@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU>
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[ boy oh boy. ask a simple question and i get STOMPED LIKE A GRAPE!!! ]

In article <1709@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU> plinio@turing.seas.ucla.edu (Plinio Barbeito/;093091;allsites) writes:
>[heated argument deleted...]
>
>You have a point, and I'll add to it.  Case sensitive filenames are
>slower and more clumsy to type out.  Only when you have filename completion 

oh, pu-lease! now you guys are telling me because you are perhaps not
a good typist, i should not have the option of using MY OWN shift key.
sheesh, why can't u understand the fundamentals of this question: I
WANT TO BE ABLE TO TOGGLE THIS BEHAVIOR. it need not affect u one bit.
i already outline a reasonable method for implementing it, thought up
in a fit of creativity in like one minute. and if i can figure it out,
anybody can, though i seem to be a better typist than some :-).

believe me, i'd much rather have 256 char file names, but that is
infinitely more difficult than what i am talking about here, which
just requires REMOVING code from TOS, not implementing a whole new
file system.

look, do u realize what i am talking about is removing an amount of code
that resembles this:

	for ( ; *ps; ps++)
		if (islower (*ps))
			*ps = toupper ((int) *ps;

nothing fancy-shmancy, just that. all i want is a system call and a
global internal variable and for these 3 lines to be implemented:

	/* this code in TOS */
	if (global_var_telling_if_we_want_force_upper_case == TRUE)
	{
		for ( ; *ps; ps++)
			if (islower (*ps))
				*ps = toupper ((int) *ps;
	}

and have a system call:

	int Fcase (what)
	int	what;
	{
		extern int global_var_telling_if_we_want_force_upper_case;
		int	ret;

		switch (what)
		{
		case INQUIRE:
			return(global_var_telling_if_we_want_force_upper_case);
		case SET:
			ret = global_var_telling_if_we_want_force_upper_case;
			global_var_telling_if_we_want_force_upper_case=TRUE;
			return(ret);
		case UNSET:
			ret = global_var_telling_if_we_want_force_upper_case;
			global_var_telling_if_we_want_force_upper_case=FALSE;
			return(ret);
		}
	}

now is that too much to ask?

how can having an option to either use it or not be worse than not having
the option in the first place? that's why your keyboard has a caps lock
key. how is owning a ferrari and a 4x4 worse than owning just a 4x4 (or
just a ferrari, assuming u can afford both, etc)?

ok. lets drop this. it is getting far too silly for me...

-bill


--
Bill Rosenkranz            |UUCP: {uunet,texsun}!convex!c1yankee!rosenkra
Convex Computer Corp.      |ARPA: rosenkra%c1yankee@convex.com