[Python-Dev] devguide: Point out that OS X users need to change examples to use python.exe instead of

[Łukasz Langa]

Wiadomość napisana przez Glyph Lefkowitz w dniu 2011-01-10, o godz. 22:56:

> On Jan 10, 2011, at 1:37 PM, Łukasz Langa wrote:
> 
>> I'm using the case-sensitive variant of HFS+ since 10.4. It works, I like it and you get ./python with it.
> 
> I realize that this isn't a popularity contest for this feature, but I feel like I should pipe up here and mention that it breaks some applications.

Yes, it unfortunately does. Vendors should test their software on both filesystem variants but they don't. So it's probably safer to go with the case-insensitive option.

I myself noticed three happy examples of bugs related to that:
* Pro Applications Update 2008-05 reappears in Software Update and there's no fix for that
* in MacVim, you can't at the same time open two files for which the insensitive path is the same (MacVim matches the first opened file and assumes the other is the same)
* sometimes with multiple case variants of a single album, iTunes shows them as separate (but most of the time it doesn't)

OTOH, I remember having strange problems with Fink and later MacPorts on a case-insensitive system. With case-sensitivity it works okay.

Best part is, once you have a case-sensitive file system, it's quite difficult to switch to the other option. The first problem is changing the format, the second is ensuring you have no clashing data. I just wrote a script (Python 3.2 required) that lists all clashes: https://github.com/LangaCore/casecheck Funny it found quite a few on my drive I wasn't aware of.

That was awfully off topic for this list. Sorry, I have been provoked ;-)

-- 
Best regards,
Łukasz Langa
tel. +48 791 080 144
WWW http://lukasz.langa.pl/

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