Re: Case dependence and coding standards

[Robert A Duff <bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com>]

Fionn mac Cuimhaill <invisible@hiding.from.spam> writes:

> With regards to the thread about case dependence - no, no, a thousand
> times no! Keep Ada the way it is. I *would* like to see a fairly
> simple way of getting the compiler to enforce coding standards.

GNAT has a switch that requires a reference to a declaration to
case-match the declaration.  That seems like a good idea, and is much
simpler than the "dictionary" idea you outlined.

Furthermore, there is no advantage to having some folks use upper case
for reserved words.  The standard advises lower case, and if you do
differently, you make the code harder to read for folks used to the
standard convention.

>...I
> frequently annoy myself  by  writing something like Put_line when I
> intended to to write Put_Line.

GNAT would complain about this (under the switch).

It would be nicer to have a compiler that simply corrected such errors
in the source file, instead of complaining about them.  The goal is to
make consistent/readable code, not to punish programmers who are too
lazy to hit the shift key.

- Bob