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From: barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: Case sensitivity (Ugh, Again!)
Message-ID: <1991Jan10.004757.19862@Think.COM>
Date: 10 Jan 91 00:47:57 GMT
References: <10080@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <2872434369@ARTEMIS.cam.nist.gov> <10105@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: news@Think.COM
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
Lines: 22

In article <10105@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> maverick@fir.Berkeley.EDU (Vance Maverick) writes:
>Oops, dyslexia strikes again.  :case-sensitive-lower means that the Lisp
>is case sensitive and all the standard symbols are lower case (as in
>Franz Lisp and, more remotely, UNIX and C.).  :case-sensitive-upper
>means that CAR is the function we all know and car is something else. 
>Sorry.  The justification given in the Allegro CL documentation for the
>existence of this mode is that it is the mode used by InterLisp.

Multics MacLisp is also case-sensitive-lower, and I think Franz Lisp may
also be.  So, the answer to why the option is provided is to make it easier
to port programs written in these Lisp dialects.

The proposed ANSI Common Lisp READTABLE-CASE attribute affects both reading
and printer slashification; the specification of READTABLE-CASE says that
it affects the printer as well.  No one ever suggested changes to INTERN;
this is a lower-level function, and it is not expected to perform any
transformations.
--
Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
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