Language change and code breaks

[James Logajan]

[ On the subject of message = Message(): ]
phil hunt wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 20 Jul 2001 09:27:44 -0700, James Logajan <JamesL at Lugoj.Com> wrote:
> >I never used that convention much until after I had been exposed to ASN.1,
> >where it is a common convention to have identifiers differ from type names
> >only by a change of case in the first letter. In ASN.1 type names start with
> >upper case and instance names start with lower case. Obviously the ITU
> >didn't see any problems with that convention.
> 
> I don't know whether ASN.1 is any good; but i do know (having just looked)
> the organisation behind it aren't competent to design websites.

The ITU (International Telecommunications Union, formerly CCITT) has only
been around 100 some years and has members from just about every country on
the globe. They almost certainly outsource their website design and in any
case that isn't their purpose. They define standards (a.k.a.
"recommendations") that have made it possible for you to pick up your phone
in the UK and be able to call anyone else anywhere in the world who has a
dialable phone number. Without them, the global telephone system and the
global Internet almost certainly wouldn't exist as we know it.

Anyway, they are slow deliberative body that does make mistakes, but also
can't approve anything that doesn't reach sufficient consensus. I'm not sure
how much case sensitivity played in the design decisions of ASN.1.