- Auto-capitalisation of keywords

From: [at]} <Les>
Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:31:43 +0100

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I have been amused to see the recent postings about Auto capitalisation
of keywords in CP. I mentioned the 'problem' of upper -case keywords
earlier this year and was 'pounced upon' for raising the issue. Now it
seems that there is a growing recognition that upper-case keyword are a
bit of a nuisance at times.

I agree that case sensitivity and the use of upper-case for keywords are
separate issues. But would we be having this discussion if Wirth had
chosen lower-case for his keywords?

I am more or less able to type by touch. That means that normally when I
am typing the Caps Lock is off. If I want an upper case letter I hit the
shift key with one or other of my little fingers and type the letter
with the other hand. I've been doing it twenty odd years and don't need
to think about it. Lower-case keywords and 'camel casing' for
identifiers require little if any change from when I am typing text.

Contrast that with the requirement for upper-case keywords in Modula 2,
Oberon and CP. Now I have to hit the Caps Lock to type the keyword and
then hit it again to type the identifier. Using shift rather than the
Caps Lock does not make for easy typing. I find the need to activate the
Caps Lock a constant distraction when I want to concentrate on my
programming. This is the major reason I have stuck with Pascal.
Programming with it is a more pleasant experience for me.

You are free to disagree with me and dismiss my reasoning as trivial.
But if people are talking about 'solutions' there must first be a
problem....

I have used four different systems which carry out auto-capitalisation.
This is for readability because the languages are not case sensitive.
Two have a menu option in the IDE which allows the case of keywords to
be chosen with the mouse. The whole of the source file is scanned and
the case of the keywords set to the style the user prefers. Binding the
choices to a function key would be an equally effective alternative.

The second sets the correct case if return is pressed once at the end of
the keyword, the other sets the correct case when return is pressed at
the end of the line. Both are mildly distracting in use. On balance I
prefer the menu option. If this also sets the font, font size and colour
of keywords so much the better as this improves readability.

Les May

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Received on Wed Oct 04 2006 - 17:31:43 UTC