Subject: Case-sensitivity goals, policy and implementation
From: Andrey G. Grozin
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 02:04:30 +0700 (NOVST)
On Mon, 11 Oct 2004, Vadim V. Zhytnikov wrote:
> I'm inclined to agree with Andrey Grozin than the only
> two options which are simple enough to rule out any confusion are
> either absolute case sensitivity or absolute case insensitivity.
> And I think than case sensitivity is more suitable for Maxima.
> Why? Case insensitivity may be good for programmer languages -
> in this case long more or less self explanatory names like
> "my_super_foo_bar_function" are generally considered as a good style.
> But Maxima is not only and maybe even not primarily programmer language -
> it is language for mathematical expressions. But traditionally
> mathematical notation tends to be concise. It is
> useful to have more different variables with short
> names - after all it is easier to read and understand
> long mathematical expression with short variables.
I agree. I want to follow mathematical notations. And if the problem says
"Consider two particles with masses M and m", I want to denote them M and
m.
Andrey Grozin