Case-sensitivity: why -- or why not? (was Re: Damnation!)

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

On 21 May 2000 11:55:09 -0700, Phil Austin <phil at geog.ubc.ca> declaimed
the following in comp.lang.python:

> Actually modern Fortran is still case-insensitive -- the existing code
> base is simply too large to consider changing this.
>
	Based upon the Fujitsu COBOL supplied with "COBOL: From Micro to
Mainframe", COBOL is also case insensitive. Not surprising, since it too
came from the era of caps-only keypunch machines.

	However, I consider case sensitivity/insensitivity to be
something in a language from the beginning -- not something to be
changed mid-stream. Even Fortran-90 (which declared that "Fortran" is
now a name and not an acronym for FORmula TRANslator <G>) doesn't
enforce case -- even if most of the rest of the language is much
different (continuation lines, in particular).

	If Python-to-be is going to affect things that much, call it...
Monty...

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