Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!eos!ptolemy!raymond
From: raymond@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov (Eric A. Raymond)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Just Wondering
Summary: Hmmm.  Is it "ObfuscatedCode" or "obfuscatedcode"
Message-ID: <1126@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 22 Apr 89 00:53:22 GMT
References: <13159@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <10088@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Reply-To: raymond@ptolemy.UUCP (Eric A. Raymond)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Lines: 31

In article <10088@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>>    Why is C case-sensitive?
>It makes programs considerably more readable, and expands the available
>name space considerably.

I think you confuse the ability to use both upper and lower case and
the concpet of whether or not upper case characters are unique from
lower case. (Translation: You can use upper and lower case in a
non-case sensitive language. Hence by your metric, they are both
readable.)

>Is there some reason C should NOT be case sensitive?

I agree that they improve your namespace, but not in any usable way.
(Sort of like the big gear/little gear combinations on a bike.  You
can use them, but it's not a good idea.)  Although its debatable, I
feel its bad style to use the same name (in diffrent cases) for
different purposes within a program.

Sure, I like to put my constants (i.e. #defines) in all uppers and
variables in lowers, and stuff like that.  This does not mean that
I'll use "CONFUSING" and "confusing" within a program.  I will use
"CLEAR" and "coherent" within a program.

To a certain extent, programming is an art of juggling many details.
By having "QwErtyuioP" and "qWertyIOp" be the same object, I avoid
having to remember this non-semantic detail.  (Of course this only
affects me when I use opc (other people's code).)
-- 
Eric A. Raymond  (raymond@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov)
G7 C7 G7 G#7 G7 G+13 C7 GM7 Am7 Bm7 Bd7 Am7 C7 Do13 G7 C7 G7 D+13: Elmore James