Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!ut-sally!ico!rcd
From: rcd@ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: case sensitivity
Message-ID: <3218@ico.ISC.COM>
Date: 24 Mar 88 08:53:45 GMT
References: <2318@bsu-cs.UUCP> <2758@csli.STANFORD.EDU>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corp, Boulder, CO
Lines: 29
Summary: some examples

> >Just an opinion:  case sensitivity in a programming language is not in
> >itself a bad thing.  It is how it is used that can cause problems.
...
> I disagree. Case sensitivity is always a drag. Someone always will use
> the TWO variables i and I, and I will get quite confused...

I've found this (mixing case to get separate identifiers) only a few times
in code I've seen in the past ten years or so, and only once was it
confusing.  In the confusing case, it was used to try to plaster over a bug
which involved using one variable, r, to mean two different things.  When a
second variable, R, was introduced, the confusion was to be expected.

In the other cases, the different variable names were precisely
those used in a formula in non-computer usage.  For example, in simple
physics, g and G are both common.  Both are named with the same letter
because both refer to gravitation, but they are numerically quite different
and, in fact, dimensionally different.  People work with these two
constants, represented by letters differing only in case, with no
particular difficulty.

One useful convention I came across was names like Alpha and alpha,
referring respectively to upper and lower case Greek letters.  I'd hate
to pull that out from under someone in a language design.

(And speaking from a personal view, since my first name is Dick I happen to
like case-sensitivity.)
-- 
Dick Dunn      UUCP: {hao,nbires,cbosgd}!ico!rcd       (303)449-2870
   ...Simpler is better.