Case-sensitivity goals, policy and implementation



[C Y <smustudent1@yahoo.com>, Mon, 11 Oct 2004 12:03:59 -0700 (PDT)]:
>                My concern is rather petty - it drives me nuts when I
> type %i or %pi and get back %I and %PI.  Not a significant concern, but
> it does annoy :-).
> 
> I think the reason I would tend to favor case sensitivity is that, to
> the eye, case does convey information.  As far as the eye is concerned,
> sin != Sin != sIn != SIN.  To another part of the brain they should all
> mean the same thing, because it is not obvious what additional
> information the case changes are intended to convey, but personally I
> would tend to favor putting up with the irritation of sin != SIN, since
> my eye agrees with that definition.

At least this part can be resolved by making Maxima case insensitive
and, for each symbol, remembering the capitalization used when the
system encountered it the first time.  (I vaguely remember such a
scheme being used somewhere, sometime ago, possibly in some pretty
printer software.)

That way any of the 2^3 capitalizations of SIN would all give the same
symbol but print the same, viz., as sin (after downcasing of the
source file where it is defined).

Of course that won't help people who want m and M to be distinct.

Albert.