Subject: Re: Wide character implementation From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 07:00:47 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.scheme Message-ID: <3225942059872001@naggum.net> * Thomas Bushnell, BSG | So a secondary question; if one is designing a new Common Lisp or Scheme | system, and one is not encumbered by any requirements about being | consistent with existing code, existing operating systems, or existing | communications protocols and interchange formats: that is, if one gets to | design the world over again: If we could design the world over again, the _first_ ting I would want to do is making "capital letter" a combining modifier instead of doubling the size of the code space required to handle it. Not only would this be such a strong signal to people not to use case-sensitive identifiers in programming languages, we would have a far better time as programmers. E.g., considering the enormous amount of information Braille can squeeze into only 6 bits, with codes for many common words and codes to switch to and from digits and to capital letters, the limitations of their code space has effectively been very beneficial. /// -- In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none. In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.