[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] Release 0.20 of matrix object is available

[Michael McLay]

Hinsen Konrad writes:
> 
>    It is necessary for names to be unique without regard to case.  That is,
>    although Python is case sensitive, some of the operating systems it functions
>    in are not, and since module names are found in the local file systems, the
>    names like array and Array may conflict.
> 
> Does that mean that Python doesn't do any clever filename mapping
> on sytems that do not support case distinction and/or long file names?
> I never checked, but I always assumed that it does something like
> the GNU library that maps Unix filenames to short DOS-style filenames
> (i.e. provide a mapping that is as unique as possible, even if that
> produces strange-looking filenames).
> 
> So, in effect, Python modules names are restricted to 8 lower-case
> characters? That would create a few problems with the Python code I
> have produced so far...

I don't think a universally agreed upon solution has ever been reached
on the filename mapping issue.  It wouldn't be to hard to implement a
platform independent mechanism that allowed case sensitive names.  It
could all be done by redefining the import statement so that filenames
are looked up at run time on some platforms.  The filesystem on
CD-ROMs uses this technique for allowing "portable" file names.
Python might even use the same encoding rules.  This will have to be
done when the PSA develops a multi-platform CD-ROM distribution
of Python.

Michael

=================
MATRIX-SIG  - SIG on Matrix Math for Python

send messages to: matrix-sig@python.org
administrivia to: matrix-sig-request@python.org
=================