Posted by Tony Marston on 05/16/06 01:14

"Jerry Stuckle" <jstucklex@attglobal.net> wrote in message
news:AaCdncQOhcGeUPXZRVn-iw@comcast.com...
> Tony Marston wrote:
>>
>> No. My point is that I have worked for over 20 years using computer
>> languages which were totally insensitive to case (assembler, COBOL, quiz,
>> quick, qtp, SPL, Rapid, Transact, Insight, Uniface, SQL) and I cannot see
>> any problem which is solved by making any language sensitive to case.
>> Just the opposite, in fact, I can only see the introducion of new
>> problems.
>>
>
> Not this argument again. Give it up, Tony. You aren't going to change
> the world.

I'm not arguing to change all languages back to case-insensitivty, but I am
arguiing that it should not be introduced just because someone thinks it is
"the standard".

> For the record - I have almost twice as many years of programming as you
> do, starting with Fortran in the mid-60's. My first case sensitive
> language was C in the mid 1980's - probably about the time you started
> programming.

No, I started in the 70's.

> Over the years I've written code in over a dozen different languages,
> including PL/I, Assembler (both mainframe and PC), REXX, PASCAL, BASIC,
> C++ and Java.
>
> I've seen definite advantages to case sensitivity, and have grown to like
> it.

I've seen no advantages, only problems, so I hate it.

> For instance, I can declare a class Customer. I can then have variable
> names like customer, customer1, customer2, etc. - or even an array
> customer[].
>
> I find it not at all confusing. Class names start with caps. Variable
> names do not. Simple and easy. And a programmer can quickly relate the
> variable to the class using it.

That is just a convention among programmers, not a requirement of the
language. It is irrelevant in PHP as all variables start with a '$' and all
functions end in '()' which makes it easy to spot the difference between
$customer (variable) and customer() (function). What I object to is a
language that delierately allows you to create variables such as $customer,
$Customer and $CUSTOMER which have the same name but mean different things.
The name is important and the case should be irrelevant.

> And, as others have pointed out, use all caps anything defined as a
> CONSTANT. That way you know it's a constant.

In PHP it is not a requirement that a constant be defined in upper case. It
is easy to tell the difference between a constant and a variable as one has
a leading '$' while the other does not. Which of these two is the constant -
FOO or $FOO?

> And that's the way PHP is, whether you like it or not. And if you hate it
> so much, go back to COBOL or another case-insensitive language.
>
> But don't keep bringing this topic up. It only shows how stubborn you
> are.

All the while people like you keep harping on about how "politically
correct" it is to introduce even more unnecessary case-sensitivity into
computer languages I will keep responding with an alternative view. Case
sensitivity does not solve any problems, therefore it is an unwanted
solution.

--
Tony Marston

http://www.tonymarston.net
http://www.radicore.org

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