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Posted by Gary L. Burnore on 05/16/06 01:35
On Mon, 15 May 2006 23:20:58 +0100, "Tony Marston"
<tony@NOSPAM.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>"Andy Jeffries" <news@andyjeffries.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:pan.2006.05.15.21.05.13.959574@andyjeffries.co.uk...
>> On Mon, 15 May 2006 11:58:50 +0100, Tony Marston wrote:
>>> 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?
>>
>> Ryan's perfectly valid point aside (different capitalisation of Dog
>> meaning different things), I actually don't disagree with you entirely.
>> At least not enough to argue about.
>
>Rubbish. The letters 'd', 'o' and 'g' spell 'dog' and mean the same thing
>regardless of case. take the following three sentences:-
>1) beware of the dog
>2) Beware Of The Dog
>3) BEWARE OF THE DOG.
The word god and God have different meanings to some. Does that help?
>Do these sentences mean the same thing or not? Does the meaning change just
>because the case changes?
>
>> However, I do feel any language ought to be consistent, if the variables
>> are case-sensitive the functions should be too. It makes the language a
>> lot more predictable in how it will behave.
>
>I'm afraid that the argument that all computer languages should enforce
>case-sensitivity "just to be consistent" is really pathetic.
Of course it is.
> A feature should not be introduced unless it has genuine benefits,
Tell that to microsoft.
--
gburnore at DataBasix dot Com
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