Re: case sensitivity

[Bob Cassels <bobcassels@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

kanderson@bbn.com wrote:

>At 03:10 PM 3/2/2003, Rob Myers wrote:
>  
>
>>>historical.
>>>      
>>>
>>Lisp and Dylan are case insensitive.
>>    
>>
>
>These may not be 2 independent votes.  Dylan may be case insensitive because Lisp was.  Allegro common lisp now supports mixed case, at least as an option.
>Scheme is also case insensitive.  However, i have been using JScheme, a Java implementation of Scheme, which is case sensitive so it fits better with Java.  I think goo would get a similar benefit for dealling with other languages.
>  
>
When we switched Dylan to "infix" syntax, there was a long debate about 
case sensitivity and use of hyphens in names.  We had given up 
s-expressions, so all syntax was revisited.  The arguments for case 
sensitivity were mostly compatibility with "mainstream" languages.  The 
arguments for case insensitivity were readability and robustness.  Most 
of the syntax and many other decisions were made mainly on the basis of 
readability, rather than compatibility with previous languages, 
including Lisp.  Readability decisions were primarily based on normal 
English usage and typography, rather than usage of any computer 
language, on the theory that English usage had been refined over a 
longer period of time than usage of any computer language.  (e.g. "Is 
English different from english or eNgLiSh?")

So the Dylan decision was informed by, but independent of, the Lisp 
decision.