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 Posted by Tony Marston on 07/04/83 11:35 
"Jerry Stuckle" <jstucklex@attglobal.net> wrote in message  
news:TomdnQ0jLryikzPenZ2dnUVZ_tOdnZ2d@comcast.com... 
> Tony Marston wrote: 
>>>Because it's better, IMHO. 
>> 
>> 
>> Exactly why is case-sensitivity better? No human language allows a word  
>> to have a different meaning just by canging its case, so why should a  
>> computer language be different, espeically when that difference allows  
>> for unmaintainable code? 
>> 
> 
> I'm not going to bite on that one any more.  Several people have tried to  
> tell you.  Go back through this thread.  I'm not going to repeat their  
> arguments. 
 
Their arguments don't hold water. Saying that "it is this way becauseit's  
always been this way" is not an argument. 
 
> The one exception I will make - when computers can understand verbal  
> instructions (or even written instructions) like people do, then you can  
> compare computer and human languages.  Until then, you are talking apples  
> and oranges. 
 
Humans communicate with other humans using human language. Humans  
communicate with computers using a computer language, one that translates  
high-level commands into low-level machine instructions. Human and computer  
languages thereore have a single point of origin, and to say that they are  
like apples and oranges just shows the depth of your ignorance. 
 
The first computer languages were case-insensitive, just like human  
languages. Then some UTTER MORON decided to break with a tradition that had  
existed since human language first appeared in written form and insisted  
that the SAME word in a DIFFERENT case now has a DIFFERENT meaning. The  
reason for this was probaby because he was too stupid or too lazy to perform  
case-insensitive searches of variable and function names. 
 
>> 
>>> And if the majority of programmers didn't think it was progress, it  
>>> wouldn't have caught on. 
>> 
>> 
>> Mere programmers don't have a choice, it's only the language authors that  
>> have a choice. And what was their reason for choosing case-sensitivity  
>> when all previous languages, whether human or computer, were entirely and  
>> completely case-insensitive? There is no good reason, which leads me to  
>> the conclusion that it was a STUPID MISTAKE that you are trying to  
>> perpetuate. 
> 
> Horse Hockey.  EVERY programmer has a choice as to which language to use. 
 
Most programmers have no choice. They have to use what their employer tells  
them to use. 
 
> And quite frankly, most programmers I know would put you in the  
> "old-timer-has-been-who-refuses-to-change-but-wants-everyone-else-to-change-to-suit-him"  
> category. 
 
I am not asking that all other languages be changed to suit MY taste, I am  
just asking that PHP not be changed to suit YOUR taste. I have worked for 30  
years with operating systems and compilers which were ALL case-insensitive,  
and I see no advantage in making the change, only disadvantages. 
 
> And quite frankly, I really don't give a damn what you think.  So I'm not  
> going to waste any more of my time. 
 
Just as I don't give a damn what you think.
 
  
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