Subject: Re: Uppercasing symbols
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 1998/12/07
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3122038086601868@naggum.no>

* David Bakhash <cadet@bu.edu>
| having done lots of elisp programming, I must admit that though I never
| use uppercase symbols, I like case-sensetivity because it allows me to
| use case when/if I want it.  It's just like DOS, which used to name its
| files case-insensetively, which now does so case-sensetively.  Probably
| because it's so much more flexible.

  amusing.  DOS doesn't name its files case-sensitively.  it _retains_ the
  case, yet searches are case-insensitive.  try to write the files FOOBAR
  and FooBar, and you'll see.

  you can still use case if you want to in Common Lisp.  I know a few
  people don't like this, but (SETF (READTABLE-CASE *READTABLE*) :PRESERVE)
  does not convert the case of input symbols.  :INVERT likewise inverts it,
  so you can type in all lowercase, and it comes out as uppercase, and vice
  versa.  if, however, you use mixed case, the symbol name is not altered.
  the idea was apparently that by mixing case, you would not expect it to
  change in the symbol name.

| I like using Allegro, because it lets me say "I want my Lisp case
| sensetive".  To me, that is a good thing.  I'm sure other vendors provide
| similar options.

  well, even the standard does, and thanks to my bitching and moaning and
  John Foderaro's excellent code, Allegro CL 5.0 also behaves correctly in
  all combinations of readtable-case, print-case, and case-mode, now.

#:Erik
-- 
  The Microsoft Dating Program -- where do you want to crash tonight?