Why can't React project name contain capital letters?

Question

I got the following message while trying to create a new project "newRecipeApp" in React.

npx: installed 91 in 29.359s
Could not create a project called "newRecipeApp" because of npm naming restrictions:
  *  name can no longer contain capital letters

What is the reason for this? Why is there a naming restriction in npm for capital letters?

Answer 1

you can read this https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app/issues/2165 NPM packages are not allowed upper case characters in their name, seemingly because unix filesystems are case-sensitive, which creates "a recipe for confusion and nonportable software".

This makes perfect sense in the context of libraries intended as portable software; however, not so much when speaking about end-of-the-line applications, especially those developed in a case-insensitive environment like Windows.

PR1652 introduced project name validation using validate-npm-package-name, assumedly to avoid issues with output displaying spaces in names.

Should "React applications", being a different (eg: less focused on "portability") category of software, have these same restrictions?

For example, I am not trying to make an npm package / library. I am trying to use create-react-app to generate an application, and I need to follow application naming conventions in my company which requires the use of capital letters in the application name.