[asdf-devel] ASDF::COERCE-NAME string-downcases symbols, but lets strings untouched

[Nikodemus Siivola]

2009/11/21 Robert Goldman <rpgoldman at sift.info>:

> But that's just speculation.  Could equally well be a simple oversight.

I've now had some coffee, so I'll speculate too:

I'm think downcasing was to make it convenient to have :case :local
work, and not needing to name your system files FOO.asd. If system
filename is going to be derived from the symbol name, then downcasing
is an ugly but solid strategy to minimize portability issues (both
when it comes to readtable case, modern mode, and case-sensitive vs
insensitive filesystems.)

As for strings, I agree with your guess. Not case-folding strings
allows for cased filenames if someone needs or wants them, and the
read-syntax there is unambiguous: no sane Lisp is going to diddle the
case of a string.

Cheers,

 -- Nikodemus