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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!uwvax!uwmacc!rick
From: rick@uwmacc.UUCP (the absurdist)
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Alternative Structures
Message-ID: <584@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Dec-84 17:59:47 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.584
Posted: Tue Dec 18 17:59:47 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 20-Dec-84 01:31:15 EST
References: <8900018@uiucdcsb.UUCP>
Reply-To: rick@uwmacc.UUCP (Rick Keir)
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 30
Summary: 

In article <8900018@uiucdcsb.UUCP> wsmith@uiucdcsb.UUCP writes:
>Ordinary languages like C, Pascal, etc...  either make no restrictions
>on case of letters in identifiers, make both cases be the same, or they 
>require you to use only one case.  
>
>Is there any reason that case can not be used to contain semantic
>information?
>
	Yes, an excellent reason.  Not adding bugs to programs.

	I thought 30 years of research into programming design would be
enough to encourage the languages of the 80s to be case-insensitive.
Names of objects in a program need a LOT of perceived distance between
them if you want to write readable (and bug-free) programs.  
	This computer system, for example, knows that I am "rick" and not
some variant of that name.  On the other hand, human beings will 
completely fail to distinguish between "rick", "rich", "Rick", "Richard",
etc.  A human reading a program will have the same problem.
	In addition, use of upper-case specifically is a pain in the neck.
For most type fonts, it is easy to show that reading the same passage
in UPPERCASE IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT THAN READING IT IN lower case.
Lower case letters are easier to distinguish.
	
-- 
"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean -- 
neither more nor less"  -- Humpty Dumpty, the noted linguist

Rick Keir -- MicroComputer Information Center, MACC
1210 West Dayton St/U Wisconsin Madison/Mad WI 53706
{allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!rick