Subject: Symbols, strings and case-sensitive Maxima
From: Donna and Dan Stanger
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 18:30:00 -0500
What was the reason that strings were implemented this way in the first
place?
For that matter, why were maxima symbols implemented with a $ in front of
them
as well?
Dan Stanger
James Amundson wrote:
> Everyone,
>
> Now that the new case sensitivity scheme has been implemented, I see a
> problem that I did not anticipate. In the new scheme, symbols are stored
> in inverted case. Fine. Some care needs to be taken when printing
> symbols, but that's it. Manipulations from Lisp are generally pretty
> transparent -- after all, most people enter lower-case lisp code, only
> to have it stored in upper case. The problem is in the way Maxima treats
> strings: Maxima strings are really symbols. That means that strings are
> also stored in inverted case. I think most people will find that pretty
> counter-intuitive. It is also not the way Lisp operates in general.
>
> Do we need to start treating strings as strings? I wasn't planning to do
> that at this point. I am just starting to think about the problem, so I
> don't have an answer. It would be helpful if others started thinking
> about this problem, too.
>
> --Jim
>
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