Explanation of "Case-sensitive"

[Tony Field]

I think we are finally getting close to the mark.

In article <39708 at think.UUCP>, barmar at think.COM (Barry Margolin) writes:
> 
> And the reason Unix is case-sensitive is that it was modeled after
> Multics, which is also case-sensitive.  I suspect that the reason
> Multics was made case-sensitive was that it seemed more modern.
      .. etc ..

Here are a few other reasons behind the case sensitivity of c and unix:
      
C was based on B was based on BCBL. The B manual by J.S. Johnson clearly
indicated that the "ascii" character set was to be used, including the
letters A-Z and a-z.  Code portablility from b to c possibly mandated
the sensitivity to case.

Modern computers such the PDP-11 and PDP-15 easily supported full ASCII -
unlike the 80-column card based 7094, 360/40, and paper tape based 1620's.
8 bit in a byte: not 6 bit charactes.  Lets use them...

New programmes such as ROFF and RUNOFF were developed to process text. As
a result, text editors had to be case sensitive. Case-sensitive editors
encourage case sensitive programming languages. If I remember correctly,
the first experimental versions of unix were used for office automation
within Bell Labs: obviously a case-sensitive environment.

Case sensitivity would have added "lots" of unnecessary code to the
compiler and operating system support. The hundred of extra words/bytes
could be better used doing more useful functions than worrying about
case. (A 32k or 64k pdp-11 was a large system in those days)

My English teacher used to "blast me" if I capitalized incorrectly.
My compiler "blasts me" when I capitalize incorrectly.

My marks were lower if my papers were capitalized incorrectly. My
programmes don't work as well as I would like if I capitalize
incorrectly.

I guess I am just getting used to it......
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|  Tony Field                             ..uunet!utai!calgary!ajfcal!tony
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