Case-sensitivity: why -- or why not? (was Re: Damnation!)

[Andrew M. Kuchling]

wtanksle at dolphin.openprojects.net (William Tanksley) writes:
> I'm not the one that's claiming that removing case-sensitivity will ruin
> Python.  My claim is very simple: first, it's a minor change for us to
> make, and second, it helps newbies.

Like Aahz, I don't think the change is that minor.  I'm also doubtful
of the "helps newbies" claim; unless there have been some other
citations in this thread that I missed, we have exactly one study
using exactly one programming environment that reported CS
(case-sensitivity) was a problem, and even that report says "most
[users] continued to type case-incorrect tokens in their programs for
a short period", which implies that they did eventually stop.  The
evidence is hardly overwhelming, and basically purely anecdotal.

IMHO, if GvR was inventing a completely new language for teaching,
then it would be worthwhile to debate whether it should be CS or CI.
But he's not; Python is an implemented language with a sizable and
growing user base that's used to CS, and a number of published books
and other materials that will be invalidated by switching to CI. 

CI buys nothing for me, because practically none of my bugs stem from
case errors, and because most other systems I use are CS.  (Good thing
I don't use SQL much.)  CI will cost me, though, because I'll need to
convert existing code and learn new habits; given that it'll probably
be straightforward to restore case-sensitivity to the Python3000 code
base, it's probably lower cost to just use a patched version of the
interpreter than to rewrite everything.  I suspect many experienced
users will agree, judging from this thread.

-- 
A.M. Kuchling			http://starship.python.net/crew/amk/
All this narcissism is rather boring, isn't it?
  -- Philip, in Peter Greenaway's _8 1/2 Women_ (1999)