Case sensitivity

[Erik Max Francis]

Alex Martelli wrote:

> No.  If you write a dealer ordering a costly computer with an
> Intel Cpu, the dealer will not snap back at you refusing your
> order because no firm called "Intel" nor any product known as
> a "Cpu" is known to them -- they'll be quite glad to make their
> profits on an "intel CPU" even though your capitalization didn't
> match the way these words "should" be capitalized.  Similarly,
> no bookseller will refuse to make money if you order in writing
> a book by "E. E. Cummings" rather than "e.e.cummings", and the
> like.  Case-*preserving* systems are OK.  Case-*sensitive* ones
> means that you'll get an error if you get the capitalization
> wrong, so you have to memorize (or continuously check) those
> arbitrary capitalizations.  Such arbitrary errors and extra need
> for memorization or checks reduce productivity, and they're NOT
> "something people do" -- it's something _computers_ do when they
> are programmed without due regards for human factors / usability.

But he gave you an example (Coke vs. coke), where the difference in
capitalization matters _enormously_.  You just chose to ignore it in
deference to your case-preserving (but not sensitive) examples.  There
are many other examples of situations where case sensitivity matters
enormously.  Pointing out that sometimes it doesn't doesn't surprise
anyone.

My fundamental point when people talk about case-insensitive languages
is this:  If there's no distinction between case made in the language,
why let the user make it at all?  All it allows users to do is to use
differing case conventions that will confuse everybody.

Particularly in languages (including Python) where case formatting is
often used as a convention to give a hint as to what type of thing
something is (e.g., all uppercase is probably intended to be a
constant).

-- 
 Erik Max Francis / max at alcyone.com / http://www.alcyone.com/max/
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