From ... Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.esat.net!nslave.kpnqwest.net!nloc2.kpnqwest.net!nloc.kpnqwest.net!nmaster.kpnqwest.net!nreader1.kpnqwest.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.scheme Subject: Re: Wide character implementation References: <87wuw92lhc.fsf@becket.becket.net> <1016554947.964486@haldjas.folklore.ee> <3225568971513146@naggum.net> <1016831590.163240@haldjas.folklore.ee> <3225841444459787@naggum.net> <1016909497.106880@haldjas.folklore.ee> <3225923202075012@naggum.net> <87it7m4mnm.fsf@becket.becket.net> Mail-Copies-To: never From: Erik Naggum Message-ID: <3225942059872001@naggum.net> Organization: Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway Lines: 21 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 07:00:47 GMT X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@KPNQwest.no X-Trace: nreader1.kpnqwest.net 1016953247 193.71.199.50 (Sun, 24 Mar 2002 08:00:47 MET) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 08:00:47 MET Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.lisp:30000 comp.lang.scheme:9689 * 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.