Great posting, Charlie
Charlie Coleman wrote:
At 06:34 PM 10/18/2006 -0400, Hal Kaplan wrote:
...
I read what you wrote a couple of times and frankly got confused.
First you say that humans can easily handle mixed-case and then you
say they shouldn't have to. Computers are computers and humans are
humans, etc., etc. Well, this human happens to like case-sensitive
stuff. Filenames, variable names, you name it. Yes, it requires a
certain amount of discipline and attention to detail and occasionally
could be troublesome. But it's worth it. If a techie cannot keep
track of spelling, using mixed-case, maybe he should not be
programming. IMHO, and with the utmost of respect, your position is
a cop-out.
...
This has been going on a long time, and I agree we're not going to
convince each other. But because you said my explanation was
confusing, I'll try to clarify it better.
First and foremost, I believe the actual content of a file, when
referenced by the file I/O system, should never be dependent on case.
"ThisFile.txt" should not be a different file than "THISFILE.txt". Do
you agree with that? If you don't agree, can you provide a reason why
it would be useful to have 2 different files named like that?
Next, I believe the same thing regarding variables (compiler symbol
tables, etc) the same way. A variable "myvar" should be the same as
"MyVar" (e.g. sort of resolve to the same 'address' in the compiler
symbol table). Do you agree with that? If you don't agree, do you have
an example where it would be useful?
The above have nothing to do with what the user/developer 'sees'. They
are how I believe the underlying systems should 'function'.
Now, moving on to what the user "sees", I believe: a) the system
should preserve exactly what the user/developer typed in (e.g. source
code or file name), b) when displaying data that a user/developer
typed in, they should see what they originally typed. The reason I
believe this is because I believe proper use of capitalization helps
humans read text.
Preserving what the user/developer types is not the same as defining
how a system operates. So, when I want to attach a file to an email, I
can bring up the dialog and start typing the path info without
worrying about the case - e.g. typing
"c:\otherfiles\analysis\clientx\" would get me down the path
"C:\OtherFiles\Analysis\ClientX\". In the on-screen display, I would
see the latter (if that was the way I originally created the directory
names), but in my typing I would not have to properly enter case to
find it.
What I was trying to point out was that what a user/developer sees
does not have to be governed by the way the filesystem/compiler works
internally. And, specifically, in regards to file name case, and
variable name case the filesystem/compiler should not force the
user/developer to take the extra effort. The main reasons I believe
this is because I can't think of a good, rational reason why I would
ever want 2 different files named "thisfile.txt" and "THISFILE.txt"
and actually allow different content in them. Likewise, I think a
compiler that results in a variable "myvar" and "MyVar" referring to 2
different values will cause additional program/compiler errors and
therefore additional development/maintenance effort. I don't know
about you, but I still make typos from time to time.
Lastly, you say you like case-sensitive stuff. Ok, but now you're on a
network and the other 90% of folks don't like messing with remembering
exact case of filenames, etc. Wouldn't it be better to standardize on
non-case-sensitivity? After all, you could continue to type your
case-sensitive searches for files and get to what you want, and the
other "Shift-key-challenged" folks wouldn't have to do that to get to
the same file.
I doubt I've convinced you of anything, but does that clarify what I
was trying to say?
-Charlie
[excessive quoting removed by server]
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