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Posted by Tony Marston on 05/15/06 20:58
"<user>" <addy@user.euro1net.com> wrote in message
news:e4a9d5$apt$1@news.e7even.com...
>I must say I agree with parent. A good example would be the subtle
>difference between "God" and "god". These do *not* mean the same thing.
In computer languages you only have variables (nouns) and functions (verbs),
so there is no such differentiation between a word being a noun and a word
being a person's (or deity's) name.
So why should the variables $dog, $Dog and $DOG mean different things?
Why should the functions dosomething(), DoSomething() and DOSOMETHING() mean
different things.
When the keyboard is replaced by a microphone (or, heaven forbid, a thought
reader) how easy (or difficult) will it be to specify the case of each
individual letter?
--
Tony Marston
http://www.tonymarston.net
http://www.radicore.org
> "Kimmo Laine" <spam@outolempi.net> wrote in message
> news:yMZ9g.4933$aB4.3177@reader1.news.jippii.net...
>> "Tony Marston" <tony@NOSPAM.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
>> news:e49mta$pvm$1$8300dec7@news.demon.co.uk...
>>>
>>> "Andy Jeffries" <news@andyjeffries.co.uk> wrote in message
>>> news:pan.2006.05.15.09.54.44.663938@andyjeffries.co.uk...
>>>> On Sun, 14 May 2006 16:38:26 +0100, Tony Marston wrote:
>>>>> The removal of case-insensitive functions names would be a totally
>>>>> WRONG
>>>>> move IMHO as it would serve no useful purpose. The argument "to be
>>>>> consistent with other languages"
>>>>
>>>> I'd say a better argument would be so it's consistent with itself.
>>>> Variable names and member variables are case-sensitive so it's counter
>>>> intuitive to a beginner to have the language partially case-sensitive.
>>>>
>>>> Just MHO....
>>>
>>> But if a language allows the same name to mean different things if
>>> specified in a different case this could lead to code which is confusing
>>> and therefore difficult to maintain. It *should* be the primary
>>> objective of every language to avoid such features instead of
>>> deliberately implementing them. This is why the GOT verb is frowned upon
>>> and excluded from many languages, and why the ALTER verb in COBOL is
>>> considered an absolute no-no.
>>>
>>> In the English language a word has only one meaning regardless of case
>>> (such as 'dog', 'Dog' and 'DOG') so why should computer languages be any
>>> different?
>>>
>>
>>
>> WeLL IF that IS iNdEED the CAse That CapS Don'T MATTER at all in ENgliSH
>> then why DO You SupPose We HaVE them IN thE FIRST PlacE? If IT dOEsN'T
>> MAKE AnY DIFfeRence TheN WHY is Writing likE This annoying? I say that
>> they DO have more than one meaning. Why do we write spoken languagues
>> like English starting each sentence or name with a capital letter and the
>> rest in small letters? It's just a set of rules, and when spoken the caps
>> doen't mean anything.
>>
>> Why do we have these rules then? To distinct certain differences, to
>> improve readability of the writing. For instance 'Jack' and 'jack' mean
>> different things. With a capital J Jack is someone's name, but with a
>> lower case j it could mean a microphone plug or a jack hammer. Equally in
>> PHP it's common practise that defined constants are written with CAPITALS
>> and mostly everything else in lowercase. Likewise it's traditional to
>> write SQL KEYWORDS in capital and fieldnames in lowercase in an SQL
>> query. There _is_ a difference between small and capitals, you just fail
>> to see it because you're clinging to the fact that PHP is a spoken
>> language (which it is not).
>>
>> --
>> "ohjelmoija on organismi joka muuttaa kofeiinia koodiksi" -lpk
>> spam@outolempi.net | Gedoon-S @ IRCnet | rot13(xvzzb@bhgbyrzcv.arg)
>>
>
>
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