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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,8d472879e3f609e0 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-06-02 18:35:39 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.uchicago.edu!yellow.newsread.com!netaxs.com!newsread.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!corp.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: "Randy Brukardt" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Case sensitivity (was Re: no title) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2003 20:35:56 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3612.1700 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3719.2500 X-Complaints-To: abuse@supernews.com Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:38417 Date: 2003-06-02T20:35:56-05:00 List-Id: Larry Kilgallen wrote in message ... >In article , "Robert C. Leif" writes: >> My experience with XML, which is case sensitive, has convinced me that case >> sensitivity is one of the worst possible changes for Ada. The case >> sensitivity of XML has caused me to waste very large amounts of time. Bill >> Gates' one major contribution to software engineering was that he made DOS >> case insensitive. > >VMS commands, from which some of the DOS commands seem to be taken, >are quite case-blind. Bill Gates bought MS-DOS from Seattle Computer; it was already case sensitive then. (I think I still have my Seattle Computer "86-DOS" manuals.) Tim Patteson borrowed much of the design for 86-DOS from CP/M-80 (the most widely used PC OS at the time). Gary Kindall borrowed much of the design of CP/M from PDP-11 operating systems. (That's as far back as my personal knowledge goes.) I suppose VMS got its commands from the same source. >Or by "major contribution to software engineering" did you mean >"not messing it up" :-) Probably; Bill Gates had as much to do with the early design of MS-DOS as I did. Come to think of it, it is possible that I indirectly had some influence on early MS-DOS, as we did have some contact with the developers at Seattle Computer before Microsoft bought MS-DOS. In any event, it's hard to determine who invented what, other than you can be pretty sure that the people taking credit for things did not invent them! :-) Randy.