1 (edited by JohnWasilewski 2019-06-11 18:26:51)

Topic: New feature suggestion to overcome case sensitivity.

I realise 2.41 development is closed but here's a suggestion that Approximatrix might like to consider for SF3.

In trying to correct case sensitivity problems in a project ported from Windows to Linux, I searched the Internet for any GFortran switches that might help.  I learned that there are none, but my search also revealed that many, many people have been having similar problems.  I can confidently predict that they will only increase, as more and more people discover the capabilities, power and resource-efficiency of Linux and turn away from Windows. 

The problem seems to arise mainly with INCLUDE files, but whenever and wherever the source code causes a program to open a file, there is a risk of something breaking.  Windows users (including me) have long grown used to either disregarding the case in filenames, or sometimes switching between upper and lower case for clarity, in the knowledge that they are the same thing to the operating system.

With a large complex project, it is very time-consuming, fixing this.  One has to search for and change to upper case all code references to explicit filenames, and then change all filenames to upper case, of source and data files wherever thay are stored. 

MY SUGGESTION
(1) If SF-for-Linux could be fitted with an extra option,, under either Make-Options, File-Locations or Linker-Options, to cause the Makefile to promote all filenames referred to in the code to (say) upper case, this could be extremely useful when porting from Windows to Linux.  I don't mean changing any of the Fortran code in any sourcefiles.  I mean just converting filenames to upper case where they are inserted into the Makefile.  This would leave the SF user with the much simpler task, of just changing the filenames on disk. 
(2) As a further development, maybe SF could change the filenames on disk, too: it would be really neat if SF had its own additional facility that users could use, to multi-select filenames, or select a folder, and have SF promote the filenames to upper case.

Just an idea, and not very important, but  I for one would be using it.  I think that any such facilities in an IDE that help developers with existing code portability would be something that Approximatrix could splash as excelllent new features that might strike a chord with a lot of Fortran developers.
---
John.