Case sensitivity

[Mike Meyer]

Alex Martelli <aleax at aleax.it> writes:

> No.  If you write a dealer ordering a costly computer with an
> Intel Cpu, the dealer will not snap back at you refusing your
> order because no firm called "Intel" nor any product known as
> a "Cpu" is known to them -- they'll be quite glad to make their
> profits on an "intel CPU" even though your capitalization didn't
> match the way these words "should" be capitalized.  Similarly,
> no bookseller will refuse to make money if you order in writing
> a book by "E. E. Cummings" rather than "e.e.cummings", and the
> like.  Case-*preserving* systems are OK.  Case-*sensitive* ones
> means that you'll get an error if you get the capitalization
> wrong, so you have to memorize (or continuously check) those
> arbitrary capitalizations.  Such arbitrary errors and extra need
> for memorization or checks reduce productivity, and they're NOT
> "something people do" -- it's something _computers_ do when they
> are programmed without due regards for human factors / not.

Those aren't examples of being case insensitive, those are examples of
the reader being intelligent. You'd probably get the same result if
you tried to order an "Imtel CPU" or a book by "e. e. cumings".

Computers aren't that smart. The best I know of just asks you if you
misspelled the word, they can't know if you did or not.

All of which is orthogonal to the question of whether or not case
sensitivity is a good thing or a bad thing. Personally, I like
case-preserving. Anyone got a case-preserving Python editor?

        <mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>			http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.