Posted by Tony Marston on 10/16/83 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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