I am running into a case-sensitive problem that I\'m not able to wrap my head around it appears.
This is what my file structure looks like. I am only entering the di
As @jagad89 said, your filename for application_controller.php should be as the codeigniter upgrade guide specifies:
"... must be named in a Ucfirst-like manner or in other words - they must start with a capital letter." so Application_controller.php
Meaning all of your Controllers, Models, Libraries, and Drivers (NOT HELPERS) have to be named in this manner to be able to be used inside of codeigniter.
For sake of unity, your class definition should match the filename as you said.
You should see the 500 errors in your log, at least on linux, at /var/log/apache2/error.log which should help with your debugging process.