Hi,

I updated my Lazarus to the latest Trunk revision. I see there is now a "sort files alphabetically" option in the Project Inspector.

Unfortunately the sorting seems to be case-sensitive. So units with capital letters appear before units with lowercase letters. Was this done by design, or simply an oversight?

See attached image for an example of what I mean.

Design.
It sorts file names, so case sensitive under Linux and case insensitive under Windows and OS X.

See attached image for an example of what I mean.

Mattias

Mattias Gaertner wrote

Design. It sorts file names, so case sensitive under Linux and case insensitive under Windows and OS X.

Would you mind if I supply a patch to make case sensitivity optional? Nautilus has such an option too. So do other Linux file managers. If not, no problems, I'll add it to my list of home-grown patches I apply to each checkout.

PS:
OS X is not always case insensitive, you can format a filesystem with case sensitivity enabled too. Just thought I would mention this.

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I don't mind, if you think broad minded.
Some users might want to sort first for file type
and then alphabetically, or to reverse. Maybe the
Sort button should popup a menu with of a few common orders. Or it opens a small dialog. Whatever you prefer.

PS: OS X is not always case insensitive, you can format a filesystem with case sensitivity enabled too. Just thought I would mention this.

Same for Linux.
But checking via Kernel functions is a magnitude slower and so far there were no big complains.

Mattias

IMO a project contains *units* in the first place, and unit names are case insensitive. It's not allowed to add a unit twice, with only different filename case.

Consequently project file sorting should be case insensitive, unique across platforms.

DoDi

But the project inspector does contain the *file* names and not the *unit* names. And these *can* be different (not only in casing), though I personally don't know anyone who uses the "-Un" option which is necessary for this...

Regards,
Sven

Hans-Peter Diettrich wrote

Consequently project file sorting should be case insensitive, unique across platforms.

+1
But if we can't do that (which seems to be the case), then at least I want to add an option no enable case-insensitive sorting. Normally my units are all lower-case, but I have some legacy units which came from some old Delphi projects which use uppercase letters - thus causing the crappy sorting in my project.

Anyway, adding the option should be easy - so my problem should be sorted in no time (excuse the pun). :-)

Just in case the same filenames with different casing have been added to a project, it's important to see all these versions together, and not spread across the entire list.

Summary: the case sensitivity of a file system does not imply any specific sort order. The same for the sort order in different applications (file browsers...). The *display* of a file list has to be optimized for *human* reading, i.e. case insensitive unless there exists a special important meaning of upper/lower case names.

DoDi

Summary: the case sensitivity of a file system does not imply any specific sort order.

Exactly. The question is: What is the purpose of sorting? Isn't it for easier finding list entries? Then it would be even better to sort case insensitive on Linux too. It would also show files that differ in case only as adjacent entries which may be an important information.

In the end it's a taste of the individual if he or she wants to have units sorted case sensitive or not. Thus it is a good idea to make this configurable as Graeme suggested. So in the end everyone can be happy.

Note: I myself prefer case insensitive sorting as well

Regards,
Sven

Sven Barth wrote

Note: I myself prefer case insensitive sorting as well

So Mattias stands alone then. :-)

This makes we wonder if Mattias shouldn't rethink his decision? Clearly most developers want case insensitive sorting in this case - simply because units to the compiler are case insensitive anyway.

Mattias?
I don't mind implementing alternative options, but it seems like a waist of effort, if everybody is going to pick "case insensitive sorting" anyway - irrespective of the platform being used.

You misunderstood me.
You asked if it was a bug or by design. It's not a bug to sort a list of files using the CompareFilenames function. It would be a bug if it would sort via CompareText or AnsiCompareText, because of the OS X normalization.
Of course you often need another sorting and people prefer different defaults. That's why I planned to add a few sort orders and store the options in the project session, so everyone can choose their preference. I simply had not yet the time to implement it. That's why I kindly asked if you may want to help there. Once a few sort orders are implemented, I agree that the default can be case insensitive. IMO it would be a bug under Linux if the files can not be sorted case sensitive.
If you don't have the time, please create a feature request and assign it to me.

Mattias

Mattias Gaertner wrote

> OS X is not always case insensitive, you can format a filesystem with > case sensitivity enabled too. Just thought I would mention this. Same for Linux.

???

I understand that DOS is handled as case insensitive (and supposedly NTFS, too), but other file systems ? I did not yet see a file system that provides case (in)sensitivity as an option.

-Michael

NTFS is one. The filesystem itself is case sensitive, but Windows treats it as case insensitive (using the Interix POSIX subsystem one can even create files that differ only in casing and are correctly displayed by the Explorer).

Regards,
Sven

Sven Barth wrote

NTFS is one....

Thanks for the enlightenment !

-Michael

Mattias Gaertner wrote

You misunderstood me.

Indeed. :)

preference. I simply had not yet the time to implement it. That's why I kindly asked if you may want to help there.

No problem, I'll take a look.