I personally prefer case-sensitive languages to case-insensitive languages. If I want to have selectors or procedures named abc, Abc, ABC, and aBc in a program I darn well expect the language to allow it and not try to limit what can be done. I also *HATE* underscores and dashes in identifier, selector, or procedure names. If I wanted to PROGRAM-IN-COBOL or PROGRAM_IN_PL_1 <gag!> I'd do so. I don't. Keep Smalltalk case-sensitive!!!! :-)
*************************** Attachment *********************************** Date: 27 January 1998, 18:55:59 EST
From Patrick Logan patrickl at INTERNET
patrickl@servio.gemstone.com squeak at INTERNET squeak@cs.uiuc.edu To: squeak at INTERNET squeak@cs.uiuc.edu cc: recipien at INTERNET recipient.list.not.shown:@
In-Reply-To: 199801272332.AAA11356@monet.cs.uni-magdeburg.de Reply-To squeak at INTERNET squeak@cs.uiuc.edu Subject: Case-insensitive selectors
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From my point of view (I am _not_ one of the "original" smalltalk designers) it's just the other way around. In a static language you have all the time you need for compiling and linking and doing case insensitive comparisons. Smalltalk, however, does lots of things with its selectors. You can "perform:" them which is in basically a lookup of the signature. In principle, this happens every time a message is sent. I'd say if the method lookup takes longer for case-insensitive comparisons this a very good reason to stay case insensitive.
I am not advocating for case-insensitity but in response to the message above, if one were to adopt this policy:
(1) It would seem to me selectors could be replaced by all upper- or lower-case selectors at compile (i.e. "accept") time. Then all lookups would be canonical.
(2) Common Lisp and other Lisps are case-insensitive and work fine in an interactive environment. Its syntax is more suited though since it can easily use - as a separator rather than _ which requires a <shift> key.
(3) WithoutASeparatorLike_or-IdGuessMostPeopleWouldStillTypeLikeThis
-- Patrick Logan mailto:patrickl@gemstone.com Voice 503-533-3365 Fax 503-629-8556 Gemstone Systems, Inc http://www.gemstone.com
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