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Full Version: Are meta-commands case-sensitive?
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Almost all official and unofficial meta-commands that I've seen are written in all-caps (the exceptions being 'Name' and 'Author', presumably for historical reasons). I can't find anything which specifies that this is mandatory when defining new metas, so does anyone know:

- is it in fact mandatory, or just convention?
- should parsers be case-sensitive or case-insensitive when dealing with metas?


(As an aside, 'meta' is not an acronym, so should not be written as 'META' as it seems to be throughout the specs...)
The official LDraw 1.0.2 spec document specifies that meta-commands must begin with a ! and must be in all caps. The text for this is in something of an odd location: the Meta Command sub-section under the Line Type 0 sub-section of the Line Types section. It is not in the main Meta Commands section of the document.
That would be why I didn't see it then :-) Thanks!

I take it then that the recommendation is that parsers should not treat (eg) '0 bfc invertnext' and '0 BFC INVERTNEXT' as the same thing?
Does the LSC want to take a quick vote to put it in the list document?

eg. Change
Quote:The following is a list of META commands that have been formally adopted into the LDraw.org File Format and links to the applicable specifications. Note that all new official META commands will have a "!" as the prefix character
to
Quote:The following is a list of META commands that have been formally adopted into the LDraw.org File Format and links to the applicable specifications. Note that all new official META commands will have a "!" as the prefix character and must be in capital letters.
I'm not sure we really need to vote since this change is semantic and doesn't actually change any requirements.
Do you want to make the change? I think it would be better as you are actually on the LSC. I know it's pedantic but since we have a long list of rules and this falls under the spirit of them I'd prefer it.
No prob. I'll do it after I have dinner.
This is now done. I made some minor navigational tweaks to the File Format and Official Meta Command docs.