main - argv lowercase strings

[Bob Nelson]

Concerning program startup in a hosted environment, both C90 and C99 require
that the implementation provide main's ``argv'' strings in lowercase if the
host environment is not capable of supply both uppercase and lowercase
letters.

While I hesitate to mention any specific platform in this query -- presuming
such an implementation capable of only uppercase letters, what is the
reason for the C language's ensuring that the strings, if any, be
represented in lowercase form (as opposed to the hosted environment's
``native'' form of letters)?

Or have I perhaps misunderstood this particular ``shall ensure'' portion of
5.1.2.2.1 about ``Program startup''?

[Walter Roberson]

Re: main - argv lowercase strings

In article <g2nupj$4r9$1@r enpen.nelsonbe. com>,
Bob Nelson <bnelson@nelson be.comwrote:

>Concerning program startup in a hosted environment, both C90 and C99 require
>that the implementation provide main's ``argv'' strings in lowercase if the
>host environment is not capable of supply both uppercase and lowercase
>letters.

>While I hesitate to mention any specific platform in this query -- presuming
>such an implementation capable of only uppercase letters, what is the
>reason for the C language's ensuring that the strings, if any, be
>represented in lowercase form (as opposed to the hosted environment's
>``native'' form of letters)?

There is no way provided to query what the hosted environment's
"native" form of letters (as you put it) is, so it would not be possible
to tell whether the inputs are all uppercase because the user
typed them in all uppercase or because that's the native environment.
To deal with this situation, the standards committee had to choose
either all upper-case or all lower-case. Probably they followed
existing precident.
--
"The slogans of an inadequate criticism peddle ideas to fashion"
-- Walter Benjamin

[lawrence.jones@siemens.com]

Re: main - argv lowercase strings

Bob Nelson <bnelson@nelson be.comwrote:

>
While I hesitate to mention any specific platform in this query -- presuming
such an implementation capable of only uppercase letters, what is the
reason for the C language's ensuring that the strings, if any, be
represented in lowercase form (as opposed to the hosted environment's
``native'' form of letters)?

History. Traditionally, C code that was intended to be portable used a
command line format based on the Unix standard, which implies lower-case
options.

-- Larry Jones

That gives me a FABULOUS idea. -- Calvin