case sensitivity

[pse_papay@GTEWD.ARPA]

In volume 89, issue 54 Bruce Anderson asked:
>
> ... does everyone think that the case-insensitivity of Ada is a positive
> feature and if so why?
>
The reason for Ada's case insensitivity is one of portability.  Ada was designed
to be the common higher order programming language for the DoD.  Since some of
the computers used by the DoD may not support upper and lower case characters, 
Ada cannot be a case sensitive language.  

Is this a positive feature of the language?  When one takes into account the
issue of portability, I think it is a very positive feature.  As for the
rest of the computer science community, I can only assume that a large number
of people feel the same way, as this feature was required by the "Steelman" 
document.

One last comment: Its too bad that many people feel "forced" to use Ada,
as Mr. Anderson's company is.  Why is it that when a group of C, or FORTRAN, 
or Pascal programmers get together (at a conference, workshop, et al), they're 
there because they _want_ to, while when a group of Ada programmers get 
together, many are there because they _have_ to?


David F. Papay                         papayd@gtewd.arpa
GTE Government Systems Corp.
100 Ferguson Dr.                       (415)-694-1522
PO Box 7188  M/S 5G09
Mountain View, CA  94039