[pacman-dev] Rationale for the patch for case insensitive configuration values

[lolilolicon]

On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 8:24 AM, Alexander Rødseth <rodseth at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I understand that case sensitivity can, perhaps, bring clarity for
> configuration values like ILoveCandy, but IMO, both "Never" and
> "never" should be allowed, as the uppercase letters bring no more
> clarity, but add an additional requirement for the users to conform
> to. That is the reason for the patch. Also, in the name of
> consistency, I changed all the checks in conf.c, not just the check
> for the word "Never".
>
> This is about simplicity and removing a constraint that users
> shouldn't have to relate to when editing pacman.conf.

This is not about simplicity, but "user-friendliness" or ease.

Look at pacman.conf, every directive or option is in CamelCase, and the
only things that are (likely) in lowercase are package and repo names and
file paths.

This distinction is good and increases clarity.  By being case
insensitive, you introduce complexity, allow this consistency to be
broken and potentially reduce clarity.

>
> I tested both compilation and execution of the resulting pacman binary
> and it works fine here.
>
> --
> Sincerely,
>  Alexander Rødseth
>  Arch Linux Trusted User
>  (xyproto on IRC, trontonic on AUR)
>