• Jordan Miner <jminer2613 nospam.students.pcci.edu> Apr 15 2009
• Tomas Lindquist Olsen <tomas.l.olsen gmail.com> Apr 16 2009
• Leandro Lucarella <llucax gmail.com> Apr 16 2009
• Jordan Miner <jminer2613 nospam.students.pcci.edu> Apr 19 2009

Jordan Miner <jminer2613 nospam.students.pcci.edu> writes:

Walter Bright Wrote:

 Because gcc on linux predefines "linux", not "Linux".


Please change the version identifier from linux to Linux.

D is a chance to fix stuff wrong or inconsistent in other languages. C
compilers may use inconsistent naming like __APPLE__, __MACH__, __linux,
_WIN32, _WIN64, __FreeBSD__, etc. Why not take the opportunity to fix the
inconsistency in addition to all the other improvements D has?

The argument that it should be linux because of gcc does not apply to those who
come from other languages. If someone is learning D after only knowing Java or
C#, and they want to use versioning, linux is harder to remember for them. I
don't care how gcc does it. I've never really used gcc. (Might even be harder
to remember for people who used C a lot.) Is it more important to be consistent
with gcc or with other D identifiers?

Plus, how many people want it to be linux instead of Linux? From what I've
seen, it seems the majority would prefer it being Linux.

Tomas Lindquist Olsen <tomas.l.olsen gmail.com> writes:

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 1:08 AM, Jordan Miner
<jminer2613 nospam.students.pcci.edu> wrote:
 Walter Bright Wrote:

 Because gcc on linux predefines "linux", not "Linux".


 Please change the version identifier from linux to Linux.


I realise I probably did my part to spike this discussion.

However, given the complaints Walter got from adding the Posix
identifier, removing "linux" is obviously a really bad idea.

But I must say I think "Linux" should be added, and "linux" be there
for legacy reasons, like "darwin" I guess.

-Tomas

Leandro Lucarella <llucax gmail.com> writes:

Tomas Lindquist Olsen, el 16 de abril a las 10:46 me escribiste:
 On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 1:08 AM, Jordan Miner
 <jminer2613 nospam.students.pcci.edu> wrote:
 Walter Bright Wrote:

 Because gcc on linux predefines "linux", not "Linux".


 Please change the version identifier from linux to Linux.


 I realise I probably did my part to spike this discussion.
 
 However, given the complaints Walter got from adding the Posix
 identifier, removing "linux" is obviously a really bad idea.
 
 But I must say I think "Linux" should be added, and "linux" be there
 for legacy reasons, like "darwin" I guess.


This seems like a reasonable tradeoff, issuing a deprecation warning when
the legacy version identifiers are used can be a good idea too, so people
can update the code eventually and the redundant identifiers can be
removed in the future.

-- 
Leandro Lucarella (luca) | Blog colectivo: http://www.mazziblog.com.ar/blog/
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Jordan Miner <jminer2613 nospam.students.pcci.edu> writes:

Tomas Lindquist Olsen Wrote:

 On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 1:08 AM, Jordan Miner
 <jminer2613 nospam.students.pcci.edu> wrote:
 Please change the version identifier from linux to Linux.


 I realise I probably did my part to spike this discussion.
 
 However, given the complaints Walter got from adding the Posix
 identifier, removing "linux" is obviously a really bad idea.
 
 But I must say I think "Linux" should be added, and "linux" be there
 for legacy reasons, like "darwin" I guess.
 
 -Tomas


Yes, I definitely agree. By "change", I meant:

- Add Linux as an identifier and deprecate linux.
- Then, after a long enough time for everyone to switch to using Linux, remove
linux.