Just Wondering

[Eric A. Raymond]

In article <10088 at smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn at brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>>    Why is C case-sensitive?
>It makes programs considerably more readable, and expands the available
>name space considerably.

I think you confuse the ability to use both upper and lower case and
the concpet of whether or not upper case characters are unique from
lower case. (Translation: You can use upper and lower case in a
non-case sensitive language. Hence by your metric, they are both
readable.)

>Is there some reason C should NOT be case sensitive?

I agree that they improve your namespace, but not in any usable way.
(Sort of like the big gear/little gear combinations on a bike.  You
can use them, but it's not a good idea.)  Although its debatable, I
feel its bad style to use the same name (in diffrent cases) for
different purposes within a program.

Sure, I like to put my constants (i.e. #defines) in all uppers and
variables in lowers, and stuff like that.  This does not mean that
I'll use "CONFUSING" and "confusing" within a program.  I will use
"CLEAR" and "coherent" within a program.

To a certain extent, programming is an art of juggling many details.
By having "QwErtyuioP" and "qWertyIOp" be the same object, I avoid
having to remember this non-semantic detail.  (Of course this only
affects me when I use opc (other people's code).)
-- 
Eric A. Raymond  (raymond at ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov)
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