[OS X TeX] installing from TeXLive

[Norman Gray]

On 2006 Nov 17 , at 15.01, Christopher Menzel wrote:

>> Thus 'ls /usr/local/teTeX' and 'ls /usr/local/tetex' are different  
>> commands -- bash and other shells are perfectly able to tell them  
>> apart -- but on HFS+, 'teTeX' and 'tetex' are the same file.
>
> Yes -- and note that some folks do use traditional unix filesystems  
> on their Macs, esp in environments where they have to rsync with  
> non-Mac unix machines that might have files and dirs that differ  
> only in case.

Very true.

In the cases where one needs this only temporarily (for example when  
building code which has 'ReadMe' and 'README' in the same directory  
(not sensible, but...)), an only-obvious-in-retrospect trick is to  
create and mount a UFS disk image.

> Is there any reason why Apple clobbered case-sensitivity?  From my  
> largely uneducated perspective, it doesn't seem to have been a good  
> choice.

One answer is that case sensitivity is only really obvious if you're  
used to it, and equally obviously mad if you're not, which is  
probably the case for most users.  So it's a UI thing.

Another is that Mac filesystems were always thus, and some  
applications depend on it.  So it's Tradition plus the great god  
Backward Compatibility.

Somewhat to my surprise, the only time I ever notice it is when tab- 
completion doesn't work.

All the best,

Norman


-- 
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Norman Gray  /  http://nxg.me.uk
eurovotech.org  /  University of Leicester, UK



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