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

[François Pinard]

"John W. Baxter" <jwbnews at scandaroon.com> writes:

> 8.  Francois:  "Why Scheme adopted case insensitivity is a mystery to me."

> My guess is, as with domain names, timing, and the difficulty of writing
> lower case on KSR-33 Teletypes and upper-case-only glass teletypes.

KSR-33 Teletypes?  I am not sure if we really think the same thing, but your
are referring to those machine guns working at 110 bauds?  Those engineering
wonders made up from the assembly 2500 distinct _mechanical_ pieces!?
With the paper tape reader/puncher option?  I'm not sure such really abound
nowadays.  I once believed that Scheme was invented for the homo sapiens. :-)

Will the design of the next century Python be driven by the need to support,
euh, hum..., Teletypes? :-)

> walk around with cards full of )))))))... in their shirt pockets, to be
> slapped onto the end of submitted card decks: one at least got something
> back if there were too many )s.

Flavourful story, and quite believable! :-)

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