Wow, Sheila really worked on this! Check out her web site. -----Original Message----- From: python-list-admin@python.org [mailto:python-list-admin@python.org]On Behalf Of Sheila King Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2001 2:25 AM To: python-list@python.org Subject: Case Sensitivity: Survey Results In response to this message: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2001-July/054788.html which continued the discussion about case sensitivity in the Python language, I announced my intention to conduct a survey of computer science teachers on this issue, here: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2001-July/055020.html The survey is now complete and results are available. I received a total of 129 responses. For summaries and to read the actual responses, you can go here: http://www.thinkspot.net/sheila/computers/case/casesurvey.html My take on the whole thing, is this: The overwhelming majority of teachers surveyed on this topic felt it was a non-issue (well over 80% of them). They felt that students have either little or no difficulty due to case-sensitivity. Perhaps, if one were designing a language from scratch (which is no longer the case with Python), it would be reasonable to adopt case-insensitivity. It seems there is little benefit to be derived from case-sensitivity (although some respondents felt that precision in approach and thinking, richness in language and naming choices, plus compiler efficiency made sensitivity preferable). So, in the interest of generating fewer error messages, insensitivity may be preferable. However, given that this was felt to be an extremely minor issue, I see no reason to entertain the issue of changing an already existing programming language either from case-sensitive to case-insensitive or vice-versa. There would be little to be gained, and certainly it would not justify backward compatibility issues with already existing code. Time would be better spent developing better error messages, or more friendly programming environments for the beginner. As I said, that is my take on this issue, and I feel that it is supported by the survey results. More details on the results of the survey, including all responses to the survey, are online here: http://www.thinkspot.net/sheila/computers/case/casesurvey.html -- Sheila King http://www.thinkspot.net/sheila/ http://www.k12groups.org/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
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