Re: Case insensitivity

[rfarris@serene.UUCP (Rick Farris)]

In article <317@sagpd1.UUCP> banderso@sagpd1.UUCP (Bruce Anderson) writes:

> I do not currently work on a project which uses Ada but I have been
> somewhat interested in the language at least to the point of taking a
> class in it (unfortunately the worst technical course I have taken in
> my life but that's another story).

I'm curious to know what course you took.  Here in San Diego, there
are very few courses given in Ada.  I'm studying for my Master's in
Software Engineering at National University, and it is taught in Ada.
I've found the National Ada courses to be excellent.  You may want to
investigate them.

> My question is, does everyone think that the case-insensitivity of
> Ada is a positive feature and if so why? Personally, if I see a
> variable 'aBcDe' and another one 'AbCdE' they don't immediately strike
> me as being the same and is therefore confusing when they are.

The case-insensitivity bothered me also, but I've managed to overcome
my objections.  1) It *is* rather pathological to use the same
identifier with a different case, and expect it to refer to a
different object.  Yes, I've done it in C, usually to differentiate
between a typedef and an object of the type, but it isn't really very
good practice.  2) Ada doesn't prohibit you from using case to
signify differences to *you*.  For instance, if you'd like, you can
make your manifest constants in upper case, your global variables
capitalized, and your local variables in lower case.

In your example above, (aBcDe vs. AbCdE), this case should never
arise.  If you've used aBcDe, you should not use AbCdE in your
program.  I hope you don't do this in the language you're used to.
(Probably C) 


Rick Farris   RF Engineering  POB M  Del Mar, CA  92014   voice (619) 259-6793
rfarris@serene.cts.com     ...!uunet!serene!rfarris       serene.UUCP 259-7757