case sensitive

1 definition found

case sensitive - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  case sensitivity
  case insensitive
  case sensitive
  fold case
  smash case
  
     <text> Whether a text matching operation distinguishes
     upper-case (capital) letters from lower case (is "case
     sensitive") or not ("case insensitive").
  
     Case in file names should be preserved (for readability) but
     ignored when matching (so the user doesn't have to get it
     right).  MS-DOS does not preserve case in file names, Unix
     preserves case and matches are case sensitive.
  
     Any decent text editor will allow the user to specify
     whether or not text searches should be case sensitive.
  
     Case sensitivity is also relevant in programming (most
     programming languages distiguish between case in the names of
     identifiers), and addressing (Internet domain names are
     case insensitive but RFC 822 local mailbox names are case
     sensitive).
  
     Case insensitive operations are sometimes said to "fold case",
     from the idea of folding the character code table so that
     upper and lower case letters coincide.  The alternative "smash
     case" is more likely to be used by someone who considers this
     behaviour a misfeature or in cases where one case is
     actually permanently converted to the other.
  
     "MS-DOS will automatically smash case in the names of all
     the files you create".
  
     (1997-07-09)