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

[Moshe Zadka]

On 22 May 2000, Martijn Faassen wrote:

> The truth of the matter is that, irrespective of whether or
> not a language is indentation sensitive or not, using inconsistent
> indentation is an extraordinarily bad idea, and
> would be extremely poor engineering practice.
> 
> Since Python enforces the indentation issue, but the same philosophy
> it ought to enforce the case issue. And does. :)

Perhaps the behaviour should be case-consistent but not
case-differentiating. I probably managed to lose everyone, so let me
explain:

>>> A=1
>>> a
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
NameError: a
>>> a=1
Traceback (innermost last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
NameError: A already exists

(Thanks for Guido for giving me a copy of the binaries of 2003 Python.
This is without the --readable-error-messages switch)

--
Moshe Zadka <moshez at math.huji.ac.il>
http://www.oreilly.com/news/prescod_0300.html
http://www.linux.org.il -- we put the penguin in .com