Re: texinfo-6.4.91 pretest

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Gavin Smith <address@hidden>
> Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2017 19:38:59 +0100
> Cc: address@hidden
> 
> > >   . if looking for a file failed, do not convert the name of a file to
> > >     lower-case and look for it again
> > 
> > Why was this change made?  The ChangeLog doesn't state the reason.
> > 
> > Thanks.
> 
> The change was made in SVN revision 7909.
> 
> I believe I made it to simplify the code, which can be difficult to 
> follow even without this.  The comment that was in the code implied that 
> it wasn't necessary:
> 
>  This is probably not needed at all on those systems which define
>  FILENAME_CMP to be mbscasecmp.  But let's do it anyway, lest some
>  network redirector supports case sensitivity. 
> 
> I admit that I don't really know what was meant by "network redirector" 

It alludes to a networked volume mounted on a system that is basically
case-insensitive with file names, but the software used to mount the
volume resolves file names case-sensitively.  IOW, the case when
FILENAME_CMP doesn't do what the mounted filesystem does.

> If it does cause problems for someone, then they will be more likely to 
> find out about the change because it is in NEWS.

May I suggest to add your rationale to the ChangeLog entry?  Because
my problem was not with finding out about the change, it was with
understanding why it was made.  I thought perhaps this code got in the
way in some use case.  If someone at some future point will consider
reinstating the code, it will be important for them to know whether
there's a risk of re-introducing some problem that the removal fixed.

Thanks.