Language change and code breaks

[Roman Suzi]

On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Steve Holden wrote:

>"Guido van Rossum" <guido at python.org> wrote in message
>news:cpvgkq1f2b.fsf at cj20424-a.reston1.va.home.com...
>> Roman Suzi <rnd at onego.ru> writes:
>>
>> > Windows is case-insensitive and thus "easy to use" only before one needs
>> > to put web-pages on the real (UNIX) web-server. Then they understand all
>> > the troubles with mised case, national-charset filenames, abbr~ted
>> > filenames, local file references "C:\Mydocs\lalala", bmp-images etc.
>>
>> But it's still open for debate whether the problem here is Windows or
>> Unix!  All programming languages and file systems used to be
>> case-insensitive, until the designers of Unix and C decided that it
>> was too much work to write and use a case-insensitive comparison
>> routine.  It wasn't necessarily intended to be better, just easier to
>> implement.  But times have changed, and that's a lousy excuse.

Maybe case-sensitiveness is an atavism, but I think that the Man and the
man are too _different_ words. And MAN is yet another. Case-sensitivity is
simple. Having one 0x0A is also simpler than 0x0A 0xD and thus having two
different file types. Unix is simpler, that is why it survived for so
long.

>In the CP4E world, do you feel it is better to educate everybody to
>understand that capitaisation has meaning, or dumb down the systems to allow
>those without a finer appreciation of language to get what *they* expect,
>thereby annoying the literate minority? I've never been quite sure how
>inclusive the "E" in "CP4E" is intended to be, but you may find that spoken
>natural language is the only acceptable user interface, given the literacy

Even spoken language will not help, because people just plainly do not
know how things are called even on their GUI systems. They hardly know
what OS is and they talk strictly about what they see, without
understanding of underlying processes. More than that, many 'puter users
are lame enough not to learn things! (believe me, I am working at
ISP tech. support...)

So probably CP4E is Utopia or "E" != humankind, but some part of it.

And thus there is no need to make thing too complex in trying to do them
simple. I think that CP is for everyone who is open to learn things as
they are, without overly simplification or complication.

If I give variable name 'Name', then I mean to call it so. And I will not
be disappointed when I try to call it by 'name' and it will not answer.

These are basic things even from pre-Eve times, when Adam called things.

>problems of even "advanced" societies. Now, even I couldn't disagree that
>there's no upper case spoken language, unless it's the traditional British
>device of
>
>         S-H-O-U-T-I-N-G   S-L-O-W-L-Y   A-T   F-O-R-E-I-G-N-E-R-S

There are no spoken language IDEs yet. And if I am not mistaken, there
will never be. Because it is much simpler to program more or
less complex things with written language.

Spoken command language could be of use with some AI systems or simple
systems which know some set of prescribed commands. Otherwise, it is too
easy for computer to give patients metil. when the doctor wanted etil.



Sincerely yours, Roman Suzi
-- 
_/ Russia _/ Karelia _/ Petrozavodsk _/ rnd at onego.ru _/
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