Why make a language case sensitive?

[Anders Eggers-Krag]

> VB's IDE is more than just a text editor.  Every line is checked for syntax
> errors and I think compiled in the background.  Of course no other editor
> could be as good, unless they also had access to the VB compiler/debugger.
It is a typical god side of an MS product, total integration with total benfit, a pitty
thought that the interface is less good than Borland's...


> Using VC's autocompletion/intellisense, you can get similar results to VB,
> so something like this can be done for any language, that is correct, but
> not to the extent where the editor is also a compiler.  It may not be all
> that hard to implement self-correction and syntax checking in Python, since
> we have "exec", but you are right:  without variable declarations this can
> prove to be difficult.  Maybe whoever implements a self-correcting/syntax
> checking IDE for Python should enfore a convention for "declaring" the
> variables, without affecting the language itself.  Something like this, for
> example:  (I'm new to Python, so please excuse the big fat mistakes I might
> have made)
Another solution is to be really smart and figure the flow of the program and
determine when a variable is first used and color that color1 and the next time
it is used it is colored color2...


> Where the variables are declared in the form of a comment that starts with
> the letters "var" which, I think, is how JavaScript declares variables,
> isn't it?
it is said the man who knew the language inside out :-)

> So, by having a line at the beginning of a function (right after
> the description line, which I hope I didn't screw up) indicating the names
> of the variables we intend to use, any name that isn't in that list and
> isn't in anything we imported would be highlighted as a mistake, and if only
> the case differs, the editor would make the case match the declaration...
The only problem is that it turns Python ugly...


> Naming conventions are great, but also impossible to get everybody on earth
> to accept (and use) them, unless your language enforces it, primarily
> because we tend to think different, the latter being a wonderful thing!  So
> your naming convention is probably wonderful, but maybe also different than
> that of a third party, whose module you want to use....
I know it is a problem, I will however try to enforce it in our concern, and one
might design a devoloping tool that enforced a naming convention, that could be
dfined by the user.


> Come to think of it, I don't think I have a problem with the language being
> case-sensitive.  I have a problem with the editor making me think about a
> detail that I have come to not have to worry about by using VB.  VB may or
> may not be case sensitive, I wouldn't really know, but what's great is that
> I don't have to worry about it.
Once you get used to it it really isn't much of a worry

there is only one thing in this world that makes me wonder: why are all the beautiful languages
run time parsed? (i here think primarily on Python and Java)


-- 
Anders Eggers - Krag