Re: Case sensitivity (was Re: no title)

["David C. Hoos" <david.c.hoos.sr@ada95.com>]

"Preben Randhol" <randhol+abuse@pvv.org> wrote in message
news:slrnbdp21r.1lk.randhol+abuse@kiuk0152.chembio.ntnu.no...
> John R. Strohm wrote:
> > that show that mixed and lower case are easier for humans to read.
You'd
> > think some of them never even heard that lower case HAD been invented.
>
> Sidenote: I heard recently on the radio that the reason it is called
> upper case and lower case was that in the old bookprinting times (I
> think it was from Guthenberg if I recall correctly) the capital letters
> were stored in the upper case (drawer) while the small letters where
> stored in the lower case.  And from this the names came. Can anybody
> comfirm this?
>
Yes. From
http://www.etymonline.com/c2etym.htm

case (2) - "receptacle," c.1300, from O.N.Fr. casse, O.Fr. chasse, from L.
capsa "box," from capere "to take, hold." The verb meaning "examine,
inspect" (usually prior to robbing) is Amer.Eng. slang first recorded 1915.
Staircase is from 1663. Artillery sense is from 1667, from case-shot "small
projectiles put in cases" (1625). Reference in the printing trade (first
recorded 1588) to the two trays where compositors keep their types in
separate compartments for easy access led to upper case for capitals and
lower case for small letters.
 > -- 
> Preben Randhol                    http://www.pvv.org/~randhol/
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