From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,66bc6b039f1e005d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "David C. Hoos, Sr." Subject: Re: Case for case-sensitivity (Was: Three simple questions) Date: 2000/10/10 Message-ID: <8rvq3q$3bi$1@hobbes2.crc.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 679859197 References: <2BED68CA963D6D55.A78776F656DA0452.75A61ED22116F1B6@lp.airnews.net> <39e2588f.21565740@news.demon.co.uk> X-Priority: 3 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 X-Complaints-To: abuse@crc.com X-Trace: hobbes2.crc.com 971205562 3442 198.175.145.56 (10 Oct 2000 19:19:22 GMT) Organization: CRC: A wholly owned subsidiary of Thermo Electron X-MSMail-Priority: Normal NNTP-Posting-Date: 10 Oct 2000 19:19:22 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 2000-10-10T19:19:22+00:00 List-Id: There _are_ some recommendations for Ada code formatting and style (including capitalization) in http://www.adaic.org/docs/style-guide/95style/html/cover.html "Frank Christiny" wrote in message news:FF7E28B976F0121D.F97167433B3E2BF3.4FD17582438B6D33@lp.airnews.net... > Larry Kilgallen wrote: > > By the way, your original question at the top of this page struck me > > as quite odd. While C/C++ uses case sensitivity, I always understood > > that to be part of the Topsy-like development history of the Unix > > operating system. To me, it is case-sensitivity that should be > > (but cannot be) rationalized, as there is never a good reason for > > allowing TheItem and theItem to be separate variables. > > Unix topsy-turvy? Man, now you got me going ;-) > As opposed to the Microsoft world, Unix is the doldrums! > > You ask me for the case for case-sensitivity and John English > says that: > > >Since humans consider 'D' and 'd' to be variant representations of the > >same letter, why shouldn't programming languages? > > I can address both those questions in this post. > > Not being a partisan of case-sensitivity I can nevertheless > assert that, first of all, Humans DO care for case sensitivity, > otherwise why have case-sensitivity in the grammar to begin with? > Consider the following "overloaded" sentences: > > In the Company of my friend. In the company of my friend. > Ada presentation today. ADA presentation today. > Standing by the Bank. Standing by the bank. > > As for the computer languages, consider this: > > 1. Case sensitivity allows for a greater array of variable naming > and semantics. In case-insensitive languages you cannot reuse a > chunk of the english vocabulary because it has already been > "privatized". Not only can you not use "while", but "While", or > "WHILE", etc. Once you define "My_List", the type, you cannot > declare "my_List", the object. > > (Weak point. Of course it's weak. I told you, I am not out > to convince anyone about case-sensitivity). > > 2. Case sensitivity standardizes the coding practice of the > internals. Some Ada samples of the different practices I have > been able to observe just two months into my introduction to the > language: > > WITH Ada.Text_IO with Ada.Text_IO > PROCEDURE Some_Procedure procedure Some_Procedure > my_int : INTEGER; My_Int : integer; > BEGIN begin > NULL: null; > END Some_Procedure; end Some_Procedure; > > With Ada.Text_IO > procedure Some_Procedure > my_int : INTEGER; > begin > NULL; > end Some_Procedure; > > The first two versions are at least self-consistent. The > galling part is that the code I have to actually maintain at work > is the of the latter flavor! Maybe because it was the result of > many tinkerers prior to me. So, what do I do in this case? > Follow the manglers or establish my own personal touch, just to > be contrary, ah? The language manual and rationale do not have > any suggestions on this regard, as far as I know. > > Dis I convince you? Of course not. You are OK though. > > -- > Frank Christiny fchris@pdq.net > Sr. Software Engineer Lockheed Martin Space Operations > Houston, Texas, USA http://freeweb.pdq.net/fchris/