Case Sensitivity and Learnability

[Carel Fellinger]

Tim Peters <tim_one at email.msn.com> wrote:
> [Carel Fellinger]
>> this would make it impossible to import library modules that do depend
>> on case distinction. Or would it be a per module switch, settable in
>> the source?  Now that will improve things:)

> Relying on case-sensitive file names is already broken in *portable* Python,
> as some filesystems don't support the notion (e.g., while NT's NTFS
> *preserves* filename case, system functions ignore it).  And Python had to
> grow the PYTHONCASEOK envar switch for filesystems that don't even preserve
> case.

us oldtimers know that to be portable means to be extremely carefull with
file names, sometimes the length is severely restricted, allowed chars
differ widely and so on. A dreadfull mess, so please don't invent another!

>> distinct classes from variables:), but then in natural language
>> we use this same trick to distinguish persons from objects like
>> in Bill and bill.

> As in Bill of Materials, or

>> groetjes, carel

> <wink>? ...

the lowercase in my name is a remnant of the days that people thought
of me as a hippy, I lowercased everybody to show that respect didn't
come for free, or something equally vague:)

>...  The problem seems more that in programming we use a great many
> compound "made up" words, and it can be a real bitch to remember e.g.
> whether some function is named moveUp or MoveUp or moveup.  Some moron API

True, but likely you forgot the exact order or names of the parameters
as well, so you better look it all up in one go then:) Besides, this is not
particulairy a newbie problem. Newbies don't get it that case has meaning.
I noticed this very often with 'fresh' informatics students, but then they
didn't appreciate the indentatian thing either:) I guess it takes reading
a lot of others code to appreciate indentation, proper documentation and
above all reasonable naming schemes that allow us to follow math practice
like "for n in N" (winky).

> ever-use-a-case-sensitive-web-search?-ly y'rs  - tim

yes
-- 
groetjes, carel