Xref: utzoo alt.folklore.computers:7623 comp.misc:10695
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!know!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!hacgate!ashtate!tomr
From: tomr@ashtate (Tom Rombouts)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Coding in lowercase - references?
Message-ID: <1990Dec3.185454.28578@ashtate>
Date: 3 Dec 90 18:54:54 GMT
References: <20517.273e9e6b@merrimack.edu> <1990Nov28.193148.1300@oswego.Oswego.EDU>
Reply-To: tomr@ashton.UUCP (Tom Rombouts)
Organization: Ashton-Tate, Torrance, CA
Lines: 35

In article <1990Nov28.193148.1300@oswego.Oswego.EDU> dab@oswego.Oswego.EDU (David Alan Bozak) writes:
>In article <20517.273e9e6b@merrimack.edu> gerlekm@merrimack.edu writes:
>>Help -
>>
>>Some time ago, on one of these groups, yet another discussion occurred
>>on whether programs should be coded in upper or lower or even mixed
>>case letters.  Someone claimed that lower case was better, because our
>>eyes are more trained ("used to") to lowercase letters -- does anyone
>>have a reference for this, or any related studies?
>>
>It is true, in general.  Upper case letters have a high degree of
>confusability - check most any good perception handbook and you will
>find a fair amount of research on this.  There are simply few

My personal, entirely un-scientific opinion on this:

In the xBASE world, source code traditionally appears in uppercase,
although most implementations of the language are not case sensitive.
Thus, I am quite familiar with this debate.

Despite the various cited research, uppercase can be easier to read
for the simple reason that since the letters are bigger, they can
be read from a greater distance than the same text in lowercase.

In a simple test that I just conducted, I could comfortably read
all caps source on a printout from about 20", while for lowercase
it had to be about 16" or closer.

Thus, from this point of view, uppercase is more readable than 
lowercase.  I am only posting this because this factor seems to
be ignored in most discussions/debates on this topic, not to suggest
that uppercase is better.


Tom Rombouts  Torrance Techie  tomr@ashate.A-T.com  V:(213)538-7108


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