Re: Case sensitivity in programming languages.


"Richard Levasseur" <richardlev@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1154531761.687441.45360@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tony Marston wrote:
"Richard Levasseur" <richardlev@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1154442024.001450.314880@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tony Marston wrote:

Benefits such as a standard meta-syntax,

What is meta-syntax, what benefits do standards bring, and who set
those
standards?


"What benefits do standards bring"...? I'm sorry, but is this a
serious question? In addition to being anti-case-sensitive, are you
also anti-standards?

I mean "standard meta-syntax".


Because then you don't have to worry about the personal convention of
the programmer; it is a language enforced semantic.

But why should the semantics of one language be enforced on all other
languages? That surely defeats the object of havng different languages.


It may, it may not. I'm very sure the purpose of a language is more
than just having or not having case-sensitivity. But you make a good
point. I'll go play with my case-sensitive language with standards on
syntax and convention, you can go play with your case-insensitive
language where you do everything else exactly the same, only without
the support of the compiler or equiv.

so we don't have to rely on intelli-sense,

What's wrong with intellisense? If it is built into an IDE which
detects
what you have keyed in and automatically adjusts the case to match
the
previous declaration then surely by not using it you are exposing
youself
to
the problems brought about by using a case-sensitive system. Surely
this
simply demonstrates that case-sensitivity is a problem and not a
solution.


I didn't say there was anything wrong with it. With untyped
languages,
though, intellisense loses some of its value. Not every IDE has
intellisense, either, and quality varies between them.

Then it's up to the programmer to choose the right IDE. If some insist
on
using siple text editors without intellisense then that is their
problem,
not mine.


The programmer shouldn't have to choose the "right" IDE. He should be
able to choose whatever he wants. Vim is a very capable text editor (I
<3 vim), but, afaik, its intellisense is non-existant.

If a programmer deliberately chooses an IDE without inellisense then he
has
absolutely no right to complain that the lack of intellisense is causng a
problem.


Your totalitarian attitude grows tiresome.

Additionally, whats the point of case insensitivity if we're going to
rely on intellisense to automatically make the case the same as all the
previous times?

That is a feature of a particular IDE which makes the case sensitive
features of the language totally transparent to the programmer. It makes it
impossible to reference the same token with different mixtures of case,
therefore the programmers are unware of te case sesitive nature of the
language.

After all, we should strive for code that is as self-documenting
as
possible.

What has case-sensitivity got to do with self-documenting code? I
have
been
writing self-documenting code for 25+ years using case-insensitive
languages
without any problems.


Because, as one of the benefits of case-insensitivity, you say that
thisTHING and thisThing are the same, so one doesn't need to worry
about how one writes it, implying and supporting that one *should*
alternate how it is written, which is not conductive towards
readable
and self documenting code.

The fact that the system ignores case does not mean that it is
obligatory
to
use mixed case as much as possible. Any programmer on my team who does
such
a thing will not be on my team for long.


Then whats the point of being case insensitive when you're always going
to write it in a case sensitive manner?

It is perfectly acceptable to write a word in either all upper or all
lower
case, but somebody who deliberately switches case with alternate
characters
is a moron.


Thats not what I was saying.

If you're adhering to some convention of programming - whatever it may
be, - then what is the point of deviating from those conventions simply
to take advantage of the case-insensitivity of the language?

Because different people have different ideas of how case should be used (as
I have identified in a previous post). But a convention is not a rule, and I
dislike the fat that a small number of programmers are taking their
paticular coding conventions and making them enforcable rules for all
languages.

Why does it make sense to write:

int myNumber;
myNumber++
if(mynumber > 3) { MYNUMBER += 5 }

Slightly exaggerated, but this is the scenario you consider an
advantage.

I never said it was an advantage to do that, in fact I would have sharp
words with any programmer who deiberately mixed case in that way The point
is that mixing case should not cause the program to do something unexpected.

Realistically, what professional programmer, in their right
mind, would write that? They wouldn't. They'd stick to some sort of
style and keep with it, be it all UPPERCASE, CamelCase, lowercase, or
whatnot.

So whats the point of case-insensitivity if you're going to write it in
the same case every time?

Because different programmers have different ideas on how case should be
used, and I do not like one particular convention being turned into a
requirement.

--
Tony Marston
http://www.tonymarston.net
http://www.radicore.org


.

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