Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!ames!hc!lanl!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Explanation of "Case-sensitive"
Message-ID: <10119@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 26 Apr 89 05:33:40 GMT
References: <13174@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <175100004@hobbiton>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 12

In article <175100004@hobbiton> fieland@hobbiton.prime.com writes:
>I think that the reason C is case-sensitive is that UNIX is case-sensitive,
>and C was used to write the UNIX kernel. 

There is certainly some logical connection between the two, but not
the one you've guessed.  The UNIX kernel could have been written in
a case-insensitive language and still have avoided folding case in
file names, etc.  The connection is that both software items were
produced by people with the same general philosophy about such
matters.  It is simpler to not fold cases, there is no gain in
functionality by folding cases, there is a loss of generality in
folding cases, therefore it should not be done.