Re: non key-words in xemacs to be upper case

[mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Michael Feldman)]

In article <dewar.840990407@schonberg>, Robert Dewar <dewar@cs.nyu.edu> wrote:
>Ken says
>
>'The guide does note, however, that people learning Ada may be better served by
>reading code where the reserved words are emphasized, and so a different convent
>ion"
>
>This is a reaction to a strong reaction from Mike Feldman, who likes to
>teach Ada using ALL UPPER CASE KEYWORDS, and that is the way his book is
>written, but I strongly disagree with this, and it is interesting to note
>that not ONE of my students chose to follow this style (I let them choose
>their own style, as long as they are consistent).

Your students (at least so far) have been in courses at least at CS2
level. It will be interesting to see whether your newbies also choose
to go against the book. 

I also let students choose their own style, as long as it is 
consistent. My CS1 (no programming experience) students usually go with
the style in the textbook, especially becauyse my projects often
involve modifying my code, which is online. So the lazy, easy way to
be consistent is just to use my upper-case style.

The RM clearly indicates that Ada source code is case-insensitive, so 
lexical style is purely up to the programmer (or project) taste. I
don't know why we even continue to debate it. 

I write books for students with NO programming experience, and follow that 
(still large) segment of the Pascal community that believes upper case 
reserved words assist such people in the learning process. My CS2 book 
also uses upper case, just for consistency with the CS1 book.

I have NEVER argued that it's a good style for everyone, only for
first-year students. Anyone past that point can damn well pick their
own style.

BTW - I've been translating Macintosh GUI-using examples, straight from
Apple's example distribution, into Ada. I'm using the Pascal form because 
it's easier to translate semi-mechanically than the C form is. I was 
surprised to discover that these examples - pitched at experienced 
programmers who are just learning the Apple API - use upper-case reserved 
words consistently.

The point is that it really doesn;t matter. AQ&S merely states that some
may prefer upper-case reserved words. That is true, and Ada allows it.
It doesn;t force you, so why on EARTH do we waste time continuing

Mike Feldman