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From: gerhard.nospam@bigfoot.de (Gerhard Häring)
Subject: Re: The caselessness is one of the things I like best!
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 20:01:17 +0200
Date: 2001-10-15T20:01:17+02:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <slrn9sm93c.8ks.gerhard.nospam@lilith.hqd-internal> (raw)
In-Reply-To: OUQ9$Yy5g4C8@eisner.encompasserve.org

On 15 Oct 2001 12:38:55 -0500, Larry Kilgallen <Kilgallen@SpamCop.net> wrote:
>> It's probably best described by an example what I mean with inconsistent
>> casing.
>> 
>>     VAR n: Integer;
>>     BEGIN
>>         N := 5;
>> 
>> I'd want to get a syntax error here. IIRC I can get GNAT to warn me
>> about this and you will perhaps think that this is only a matter of
>> style and best handled by tools apart from the compiler.
>> 
>> Perhaps I'm irrational but Ada's behaviour here reminds me too much of
>> BASIC.
>> 
>> This is one of the rare points where Ada allows the programmer to do
>> something stupid.
>
>Aside from someone brought up on C, how would it seem "stupid" ?

I don't like C'ish languages very much and my cultural imprint was in
MODULA-2 and Python land, though I got my share of C, C++ and Java. I
encountered case insensitivity only in toy languages like BASIC and
(Standard) Pascal.

>if i should choose to Capitalize thINGs Irregularly, it may seem
>STrange to your eyes, but you do understand what i am saying.

You're making it harder for the reader, therefore you should get syntax
warnings from the compiler and if you continue to ignore them, the
compiler should delete the source file ;-)

>Many people feel a given program should use consistent casing,
>but that is just for the humans, not for the compiler.  It is
>similar to the presence of comments in the source.

Natural written language is case sensitive (in the few languages I know,
maybe Hebrew isn't). Therefore I believe artificial languages that
describe algorithms should be, too.

You don't mix capitalisation in your mathematic works, right? n or |N,
that matters. Programming languages are just a special form of maths,
anyway.

Gerhard
-- 
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  reply	other threads:[~2001-10-15 18:01 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 85+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2001-10-15  8:21 Why not combine Ada and C++? Mike Meng
2001-10-15 10:29 ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-10-15 10:36 ` Robert*
2001-10-15 11:15 ` Stephen Cole
2001-10-15 12:06   ` The caselessness is one of the things I like best! Petter Fryklund
2001-10-15 12:21     ` Gerhard Häring
2001-10-15 12:48       ` UPPERCASE is the typgraphical equivalent of shouting ;-) Petter Fryklund
2001-10-15 12:54       ` The caselessness is one of the things I like best! James Rogers
2001-10-15 13:11       ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-10-15 15:12         ` Arthur Evans Jr
2001-10-15 16:00           ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-10-18 19:48             ` Simon Wright
2001-10-18 23:35               ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-10-16  8:48           ` John English
2001-10-16 13:11             ` James Rogers
2001-10-16 18:10               ` tmoran
2001-10-17  8:53                 ` Philip Anderson
2001-10-17 10:57                   ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-10-19 14:52               ` john mann
2001-10-15 15:13       ` Marin David Condic
2001-10-15 17:00       ` tmoran
2001-10-15 17:29         ` Gerhard Häring
2001-10-15 17:38           ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-10-15 18:01             ` Gerhard Häring [this message]
2001-10-15 19:04               ` David Starner
2001-10-15 18:15           ` David Starner
2001-10-15 17:35         ` Marin David Condic
2001-10-15 18:18           ` Pascal Obry
2001-10-15 18:57             ` Marin David Condic
2001-10-15 22:46           ` Jeffrey Carter
2001-10-16 13:32             ` Ted Dennison
2001-10-22  2:10             ` David Thompson
2001-10-15 13:03     ` Alfred Hilscher
2001-10-22 20:27     ` Kenneth Almquist
2001-10-15 14:39   ` Why not combine Ada and C++? Marin David Condic
2001-10-15 16:17     ` Alfred Hilscher
2001-10-15 16:35       ` Marin David Condic
2001-10-15 20:15         ` Robert*
2001-10-15 21:27           ` Marin David Condic
2001-10-15 22:50           ` Jeffrey Carter
2001-10-18 19:53             ` Simon Wright
2001-10-21  5:54               ` AG
2001-10-24 14:48     ` A UNISYS story Petter Fryklund
2001-10-24 15:03       ` Ted Dennison
2001-10-25  7:37         ` Petter Fryklund
2001-10-15 17:41   ` Why not combine Ada and C++? Stephen Cole
2001-10-15 18:27     ` tmoran
2001-10-15 20:24       ` Wes Groleau
2001-10-15 20:03     ` Wes Groleau
2001-10-15 18:42   ` Modern languages are case sensitive? Jeffrey Carter
2001-10-15 19:20     ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-10-15 22:54       ` Jeffrey Carter
2001-10-16 11:21         ` Dmitry Kazakov
2001-10-16 11:42     ` Robert Dewar
2001-10-16 13:16       ` Dale Stanbrough
2001-10-16 23:43         ` David Botton
2001-10-17  1:42           ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-10-16 14:36       ` Arthur Evans Jr
2001-10-16 14:50       ` Chris Morgan
2001-10-16 15:18       ` Florian Weimer
2001-10-16 15:47         ` Wes Groleau
2001-10-16 16:48           ` Florian Weimer
2001-10-16 17:12         ` David Starner
2001-10-16 20:32           ` Florian Weimer
2001-10-16 21:37             ` David Starner
2001-10-17  8:39               ` Florian Weimer
2001-10-18  0:00     ` Will
2001-10-18  2:12       ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-10-18  2:32         ` Darren New
2001-10-18 11:32           ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-10-15 19:47   ` Why not combine Ada and C++? Wes Groleau
2001-10-23  5:39     ` Hyman Rosen
2001-10-23  6:11       ` Richard Riehle
2001-10-15 19:28 ` Baugereau
2001-10-15 20:05   ` Ted Dennison
2001-10-16  7:38     ` Martin Dowie
2001-10-16 11:44       ` Pascal Obry
     [not found] ` <01c155a0$7dd31b80$1b7af2c3@akzvbymr>
2001-10-15 20:02   ` Ted Dennison
2001-10-15 20:55   ` Adrian Knoth
2001-10-15 22:15   ` Eric Merritt
2001-10-15 22:42   ` tmoran
     [not found]     ` <01c15665$dc2e6c00$9b29e8d4@akzvbymr>
2001-10-16 17:48       ` Ted Dennison
2001-10-16 18:04       ` Larry Kilgallen
2001-10-16 23:01         ` tmoran
2001-10-16 18:51       ` Marin David Condic
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