Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ucla-cs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!desint!geoff
From: geoff@desint.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: Long names in System V (really mixed case)
Message-ID: <316@desint.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Apr-87 00:34:16 EST
Article-I.D.: desint.316
Posted: Tue Apr  7 00:34:16 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Apr-87 00:20:07 EST
References: <040187.111854.dan@ibm.com> <311@desint.UUCP> <776@jumbo.dec.com> <424@bacchus.MIT.EDU> <6130@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Reply-To: geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning)
Distribution: world
Organization: Interrupt Technology Corp., Manhattan Beach, CA
Lines: 60

My word!  I certainly didn't realize I was going to unleash such a storm
of controversy.

Jim Gettys writes:
>You are the first person to compain about this in recent memory.

This only proves that you are in a "sheltered*" environment.

*I don't mean this in a negative sense.

>I find it easier to parse names of files if there is some way to tell where
>one word begins and ends.

While it is true that visual parsing aids are nice, I have found that
after a short learning curve, I have no trouble parsing things.  On the
other hand, I *type* the filenames a lot, and as somebody pointed out,
shifting slows typing.  For a really fast typist, it slows it a lot,
because there is a synchronization required, which is much more difficult
than simple sequencing.

As quick evidence, here are six attempts at fast typing:

nos is the time to all good men to come to the aid of the paryt
now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party

My best time was 7.5 seconds.  Note that the second one is perfect.

Now Is The Time For All Good Men To  Come TO The Aid Of THe Party
Now Is The Time For All Good Men TO Come To THe Aid Of The Partyy
Now Is The Time For ALl Good Men To COme TO THe Aid Of THe Party
Now Is The Time For All Good Men To Come To The Aid Of The APrety

My best time was 11.0 seconds.  Note that EVERY example contains at
least one case where I didn't release the shift key quickly enough.

Yakim Martillo writes:

>I guess people coming from one of these systems to Unix might have some
>problems with meaningful case in file names.  

This person (who is the original complainer) has been using UNIX
exclusively and continuously for six years, and has noticed that
UNIX uses monocase almost exclusively.  It is radical only in that the
single case is lower, not upper.  True, there are exceptions;  it is
also true that many people are unhappy with things like mixed-case switches.

The people who have problems with meaningful case in file names are the
people who have been paying attention to the human-engineering
literature for the past few years. :-)

Barry Shein writes:

>Has the original plaintiff tried 'stty lcase' :-)

The original plaintiff is frequently used as a walking index to the UNIX
documentation. :-)

-- 

	Geoff Kuenning   geoff@ITcorp.com   {hplabs,ihnp4}!trwrb!desint!geoff