ddb@mrvax.DEC (DAVID DYER-BENNET MRO1-2/L14 DTN 231-4076) (11/07/84)
>>1. C is not English >>2. This is an automatic way to break LOTS (also lots) of code >>-- >>Gene E. Bloch (...!nsc!voder!gino) 1. Reading C uses many of the same skills as reading English. Also the same skills as reading most other programming languages. I believe that there is a "population stereotype," as it is called, among readers (other than those specifically trained to C and, now, Modula-2) that case distinctions do not alter the basic meaning of a string of characters. Attempting to fight a population stereotype is like pissing into the wind -- for example, have you ever watched the traffic pattern in a building where they put the up escalator on the right and the down escalator on the left (like one place in the Prudential center in Boston, for example)? (from the point of view of someone walking down the corridor towards the escalator heads.) 2. Do people really write code with variables differing only in casing? **shudder**. I suppose they do. Given the user communitie's attitude on compatibility it's probably too late to save C, but as a basic principle I think case distinction in variable (or file) naming is EXTREMELY BAD ergonomic design.
bsa@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) (11/09/84)
> Article <4154@decwrl.UUCP>, from ddb@mrvax.DEC (DAVID DYER-BENNET MRO1-2/L14 DTN 231-4076) +---------------- | >>1. C is not English | >>2. This is an automatic way to break LOTS (also lots) of code | >>-- | >>Gene E. Bloch (...!nsc!voder!gino) | | 1. Reading C uses many of the same skills as reading English. Also the | same skills as reading most other programming languages. C is, again, not English; nor is it Pascal, FORTRAN (shudder), BASIC (super-shudder), or Modula-2. If you'd give up case distinction in C, maybe you'd like to give up some of those *other* strange, un-natural objects in C: unions, for example (Pascal has 'em, barely; C is sane about them). There are a LOT of other examples. If you want case to be non-distinct, go back to BASIC. | 2. Do people really write code with variables differing only in casing? | **shudder**. I suppose they do. Given the user communitie's attitude | on compatibility it's probably too late to save C, but as a basic | principle I think case distinction in variable (or file) naming | is EXTREMELY BAD ergonomic design. I often use C's case distinction to give an understandable name to a certain kind of variable (kai structured programming! :-): FILE *file; You include *file names* too? PLEASE go back to whatever operating system (TRSDOS?) you came from! This is UNIX. --bsa -- Brandon Allbery @ North Coast Xenix | the.world!ucbvax!decvax!cwruecmp! 6504 Chestnut Road, Independence, Ohio | {atvax!}ncoast!{tdi1!}bsa (216) 524-1416 \ 44131 | E1439@CSUOHIO.BITNET (friend's acct.) ---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------- `Confusion is my natural state.'