On Fri, 2009-02-20 at 23:49 -0500, John Cowan wrote:
> Thomas Lord scripsit:
> 
> > Oh, THEM... well, good then.  They don't come
> > around here.  There's nothing to worry about.
> 
> /me raises his hand in meek defiance.



Well, I was being silly.  I assume that
people don't take "language faith" polarizations
that seriously.

To the original point (about case sensitivity)...

It's not the job of a language definition
to prevent the possibility of writing obfuscated
code. So, "Type type = new Type", if it occurs
in a context where it is genuinely obfuscatory,
is no argument against case sensitivity. 

Linguistically and typographically - since we're
in some sense given the primary task of designing
typographic notations for a certain class of objects - 
it's a wash.   People use case to signify things
in real life all the time.  Sometimes, to understand
them, you have to understand the words in a case 
insensitive way - GET IT?   Other times, case sensitive -
as in the difference between "I'm looking for a John"
and "I'm looking for a john".  (Lest you think I'm making
fun of your name let me just point that I've a lifetime
experience with a surname that invites all manner of 
jokes and insults.)   So it's a wash in that sense.

Finally, as we know from Unicode, case folding is -
when considered from a global perspective rather than
just an ASCII perspective - rather hairy and we don't
necessarily all agree about the best ways to do it
in every situation.   That's a good argument *against*
making a language case insensitive.


-t




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