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

[François Pinard]

hzhu at rocket.knowledgetrack.com (Huaiyu Zhu) writes:

> Why is case sensitivity a language barrier for those who don't want it?
> If you don't want two cases, choose one and use that one alone.  On the
> other hand, case insensitivity can be a big headache for people who need
> two cases.

The problem is that it is not to be a personal taste and thing.  We live
in a world of inter-human relations, and computers are instruments in
these exchanges.  Python programs are being shared, and children (and
adult newcomers) will also learn to share as well in their apprenticeship.

Python should stay designed so these exchanges are as meaningful as possible,
and case confusion directly goes against peaceful exchanges.  The natural
sloppiness of many people should not get conveyed and imposed to others,
without Python somewhat imposing its distinct legibility features.

It just does not fit together to have a clean syntax with a sloppy
tokenizer.  This is tearing apart the own elegance of the language, and
somewhat destroying one of the quality which made it attractive.  I quite
understand that some people just do not mind, and that children may not
see the benefit by themselves, right away.  It is even likely that studies
might even demonstrate that a bit of learning is needed: let's keep calm!

-- 
François Pinard   http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard