Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!claris!krazy
From: krazy@claris.com (Jeff Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Explanation of "Case-sensitive"
Message-ID: <9954@claris.com>
Date: 24 Apr 89 06:14:29 GMT
References: <860@tp.Solbourne.COM>
Distribution: na
Organization: Claris Corporation, Santa Clara CA
Lines: 31

> I have yet to here a good argument for cases being distinct, and have
> seen several that say it's a bad idea.  So, once again:
> 
> Why is C case sensitive?  And who can we blame for this mistake?

In my opinion, one of the easiest ways to make Pascal code unreadable is to
capitalize all the keywords.  I find the line "IF foo = 3 THEN BEGIN" much more
distracting than the equivalent "if (foo = 3) then begin".

This is one of the best arguments (IMHO) for requiring that C keywords be
entered in lower case.  I don't want to be distracted by semantic sugar
when I'm trying to figure out what a piece of code does.  (Oh, god, I see
a flame war coming.  Please, no!!)

I tend to try to conform to a standard capitalization scheme when I enter
identifiers.  (e.g., CONSTANT, TypeName, variable, function()).  I don't want
any confusion about what something is.  If I see all upper case, it means
constant.  If I try to type the same identifier in lower case, I want the 
compiler to flag that as an error.  

I prefer my languages (and operating systems) to be completely case-sensitive.
"A" is not the same as "a" to me when I'm on the computer.

Your mileage may vary, and will be lower in California.  To each their own.


-- 
Jeff Erickson       Claris Corporation  | Birdie, birdie, in the sky,
408/987-7309      Applelink: Erickson4  |   Why'd you do that in my eye?
krazy@claris.com     ames!claris!krazy  | I won't fret, and I won't cry.
       "I'm a heppy, heppy ket!"        |   I'm just glad that cows don't fly.