Re: Three simple questions

[Kilgallen@eisner.decus.org.nospam (Larry Kilgallen)]

In article <8sg7bj$fon$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> writes:
> In article <E$AxXKqRbPwQ@eisner.decus.org>,
>   Kilgallen@eisner.decus.org.nospam (Larry Kilgallen) wrote:
>> In article <wcc8zro93vg.fsf@world.std.com>, Robert A Duff
> <bobduff@world.std.com> writes:
>>
>> > I find myself going to some trouble to avoid starting a
> sentence with a
>> > case-senstive name -- "The 'gcc' command compiles Ada
> programs.", rather
>> > than "'gcc' compiles Ada programs.", which is ugly, or
> "'Gcc' compiles
>> > Ada programs.", which is wrong.
>>
>> Isn't it only wrong on case-sensitive operating systems ?
> 
> Assuming there was no missing smiley here and that Larry
> was serious (which may be a silly assumption), I will say
> that I know exactly what Bob means, and I do the same
> myself. It is analogous to knowing that the following
> sentence is malformed.
> 
> E.e. cummings was one of the last centuries most brilliant
> poets.

Since the three characters were quoted, I would expect that on
a case blind command language the statements:

	'gcc' compiles...
	'Gcc' compiles...
	'gCC' compiles...

would all be equally true, especially since the substitute
"The 'gcc' command compiles" indicates that the three letters
represent the command rather than the official product name of
the compiler.

If I were king, I would have named the compiler with a capitalized
acronym even if the command to invoke it had to be lower case on
my favorite operating system.  But I rarely agree with Mr. Stallman.