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

[Neil Hodgson]

> When we teach our children to write we teach them case sensitivity, I do
not
> remember any governing body suggesting we should drop case sensitivity
from
> written language in order that 'everyone' will therefore be able to write.
>
> I also cannot believe that this is a difficult lesson to learn.
>
> How many times would you have to be told before you understood it? Once or
> twice?

   While I /know/ that Unix file names are case sensitive, that doesn't stop
me from mistyping them. This is something Windows and Macintosh do right -
removing a cause of error for no real limitation in functionality.

   I would extend the same scheme to variable naming in Py3K. Names have one
and only one capitalisation. Other capitalisations are an error. The IDEs
can provide different styles of help here, from no action through
highlighting miscapitalisation to automatic case changing.

   Some people have been using a=A(). Even me. But is this something that
you really feel should be encouraged? Or is it a source of ambiguity and
potential misunderstanding.

   Neil