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

[Will Rose]

Les Schaffer <godzilla at netmeg.net> wrote:
[...]
: i dread the changes that will be upcoming in the Python community. i
: mean, GvR gives us a whole sermonon on how we should be cAREFUL in
: expressing the wHYS involved in the debate. Then he sets the level of
: the discussion to unimagined lows by virtue of the "reasons" he puts
: forward.

: i can only venture a guess as to why things are headed this
: way. Everyone who codes smells money, IPO money. So they figure if
: they can twiddle their language to meet the masses, the unwashed
: masses who can't learn case-sensitivity, OR SO THE EXPERTS TELL US,
: then there is a fortune to be made.

: Absurd notion, right?

Right.

The people in this newsgroup generally like Python, want Python to be
improved but not broken, and admire Guido's design skills.  Hence the
long discussions over various aspects of language internals and
presentation.  If you re-read Guido's posts on this specific
change, you'll find that his reasons are nothing to do with IPO money.
(As far as I know, he's working under a government grant of some sort,
but I could well be wrong.)  He wants to make the language easier to
use for the inexperienced, which is a laudable aim.  It's not clear
exactly how this can be achieved with the least impact on the
expressiveness of the language, and its use by more experienced users.

There are things I like about the current Python, and things I dislike,
and things (like stackless / uthreads) that I hope will be added.  (I
doubt, tho', they will be).  However, Guido's the final arbiter and he
seems to be doing a superb job; to complain that it's all a question
of possible IPO money seems remarkably mean-spirited. 


Will
cwr at cts.com