Case distinction in variable names

[Brandon Allbery]

> Article <4154 at decwrl.UUCP>, from ddb at mrvax.DEC (DAVID DYER-BENNET MRO1-2/L14 DTN 231-4076)
+----------------
| >>1. C is not English
| >>2. This is an automatic way to break LOTS (also lots) of code
| >>-- 
| >>Gene E. Bloch (...!nsc!voder!gino)
| 
| 1. Reading C uses many of the same skills as reading English.  Also the
|    same skills as reading most other programming languages.

C is, again, not English; nor is it Pascal, FORTRAN (shudder), BASIC
(super-shudder), or Modula-2.  If you'd give up case distinction in C,
maybe you'd like to give up some of those *other* strange, un-natural
objects in C:  unions, for example (Pascal has 'em, barely; C is sane
about them).  There are a LOT of other examples.  If you want case to
be non-distinct, go back to BASIC.

| 2. Do people really write code with variables differing only in casing?
|    **shudder**.  I suppose they do.  Given the user communitie's attitude
|    on compatibility it's probably too late to save C, but as a basic
|    principle I think case distinction in variable (or file) naming
|    is EXTREMELY BAD ergonomic design.

I often use C's case distinction to give an understandable name to a
certain kind of variable (kai structured programming!  :-): 

	FILE *file;

You include *file names* too?  PLEASE go back to whatever operating system
(TRSDOS?) you came from!  This is UNIX.

--bsa
-- 
  Brandon Allbery @ North Coast Xenix  |   the.world!ucbvax!decvax!cwruecmp!
6504 Chestnut Road, Independence, Ohio |       {atvax!}ncoast!{tdi1!}bsa
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			`Confusion is my natural state.'