User Problems (was Re: [Maxima] Case-sensitivity goals, policy and implementation)

--- "Andrey G. Grozin" <A.G.Grozin@inp.nsk.su> wrote:

> 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.

That, in a nutshell, is probably the best arguement there is for case
sensitivity.  Certainly in defining physics problems case is something
to be considered and used.  (Indeed, downcasing the physics constants
package is not something I'm looking forward to, nor am I at all sure
it's a good idea for all definitions.  If the physics convention is the
name is upper case, I prefer to respect that.)

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of a user setting
which converts user input to lower case by default.  That, combined
with some function to denote a specific intent to input a literal case
expression (e.g. realcase(%M) or some such) would allow a default that
maps to the mathematical notation, but provides the nearest thing to
case insensitivity that can be easily provided for people who prefer
it. Since the intent is to downcase (almost) all the Maxima code, they
should be happy 99% of the time anyway.

CY


		
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