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- From: bevan@cs.man.ac.uk (Stephen J Bevan)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme
- Subject: Re: Case sensitivity
- Message-ID: <BEVAN.92Nov7122404@hippo.cs.man.ac.uk>
- Date: 7 Nov 92 12:24:04 GMT
- References: <MAYER.92Nov2105543@fliff.wrc.xerox.com>
- <1992Nov3.145414.28199@csservices.Princeton.EDU>
- <1992Nov5.125818.29114@syacus.acus.oz.au>
- Sender: news@cs.man.ac.uk
- Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester
- Lines: 38
- In-reply-to: ian@syacus.acus.oz.au's message of 5 Nov 92 12:58:18 GMT
-
- In article <1992Nov5.125818.29114@syacus.acus.oz.au> ian@syacus.acus.oz.au (Ian Joyner) writes:
- >I still don't understand, why some programmers (and program readers) should
- >have such difficulties remembering, that Foo and foo are not the same!
- >I already knew about this distinction as a kid, 1st grade in grade school :-)
-
- Firstly, they are the same. A first grade kid WILL tell you this.
-
- Oh yes it is, oh not it isn't ... etc. It is obvious people disagree
- on this so could we please be spared these "statements of truth" (tm)
-
- Thirdly, the memory of the word foo is achieved by remembering the sound.
-
- amongst other things.
-
- 'Foo' and 'foo' are both remembered as the sound "FOO".
-
- "bow" and "bough" both have the same sound, but that doesn't make them
- the same word.
-
-
- > And again: there are ``natural'' languages, where case matters. I
- > haven't met any German speaker, who confuses `Weg' and `weg'. Is
- > this really that hard?
-
- But the more I see this example in its different guises, the more I
- realise that it has little to do with the problem. It is a complication
- in a natural language. I cannot see that this justifies the introduction
- of the same complication into programming languges.
-
- I think the opposite of this is that many people cannot see why
- "somefunction" and "SOMEFUNCTION" (or even "SoMeFuNcIiOn") should be
- considered the same. Your statements such as "no appreciable benefit"
- and "no way enhances the expressivness of a language" aren't likely to
- change their minds.
-
- yours ambivalently,
-
- bevan
-