Case insensitivity

[Quinn Dunkan]

On Thu, 19 Jul 2001 20:30:15 GMT, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
>To me, the only real important question is, how can we introduce
>case-sensitivity for novices without breaking the millions of lines of
>existing Python code.  One option could be: forget it, it's too late.
>Another: put the case-insensitivity in the tools.

Given that changing the language itself at this point is too late (and I think
it is), the question is "for newcomers, does the additional complexity added
by a layer of indirection in the tools cancel out the benefit of case
insensitivity?"  Obviously, that's assuming there is a benefit and it's
significant (and just how significant is what no one agrees on).  But if I
were I newbie, I wouldn't like to hear "these are just training wheels, the
real language has slightly different rules".  Don't underestimate the newbie
appeal of "what you see is all there is" (not that it ever is in python, given
magic methods etc., but we shouldn't make it worse).

An editor that optionally gives warnings about names with only case
differences seems pretty innoccuous, though.  Giving people a friendly editor
is in the same spirit of avoiding "ok, well, to learn python first you need to
learn the unix shell, to be able to manage your source files and run vi, oh
yes, then you need to learn to use vi, just memorize this table of commands,
ok, then..."

So I'd say, please don't change the language itself, but it would be
interesting to see experiments on a friendly python-oriented editing
environment (to simplify things like finding modules and documentation,
importing, reloading, etc.).