Re: [GLISS] - alternative viewpoint

[Werner LEMBERG]

>>>> I'm strictly against case-insensivity.
>>
>> First, it is confusing.  Virtually all programming languages of today
>> (and lilypond's input code resembles that) are case-sensitive.
>
> So what? I am not a programmer. I am a user.

Urgh.  This is a real knock-out argument for everything.  Even TeX,
which has been written more than 30 years ago, and which is used by
millions of non-programmers, is case-sensitive.

>> Second, as David has already mentioned, the conversion to either
>> lowercase or uppercase is locale dependent.
>
> User's don't care, I don't care. I want to not have to remember
> whether it is \Mycommand, \myCommand or \MyCommand or \mycommand or
> \MYCOMMAND - make them all work or make one of them work.

Then use a front-end which corrects you!  I can easily imagine that
you get command completion with the TAB key, or a scroll-down list of
command names for die-hard mouse users.

I don't see any reason to cripple lilypond itself, given that a layer
on top of it can hide such really `nasty' details like uppercase and
lowercase.

>> Third, the numbers of short user-definable abbreviations gets
>> halved.
>
> So what? You are a developer, fix that. I do want to not have to
> remember what case I am supposed to be using.

Again, use a frontend which manages that for you, for example, by
disallowing you to enter macro names which contain uppercase letters.

>> Fourth, Scheme is not case-insensitive.  [...]
>
> So what?
>
> I am not typing Scheme I am typing \mycommand. What is Scheme
> anyway?  Where do I find that in the Learning manual?
>
> I came to use lilypond to write music scores not to learn or care
> about programming.

Mhmm.  May I recommend a sheet of paper and a pencil instead,
then? :-)

>> There is actually a reason for that.  Staff, as a context name, is
>> a container for properties, and things like Slur, as a property
>> name, are also principally containers for properties.
>
> [user-not-developer]; huh?

Since you say `huh', you are obviously on the wrong mailing list :-)

> Users are ready to accept change, it seems that many developers are
> not or are too blinkered or half-empty to even want to understand
> why something is discussed, instead its taken as a personal affront
> to them or their code.

The very problem is that some must implement these changes.  As David
has said, this is far from trivial.


    Werner