Case sensitive variables question [SOLVED]

[AZJIO]

Shanheavel

Local $oDict = ObjCreate("Scripting.Dictionary") 
$oDict.CompareMode = 0 ; binar
$oDict.Add("VAL", -45.961)
$oDict.Add("val", 34)
$oDict.Add("VaL", 1)
$sStr = "VAL: " & $oDict.Item("VAL") & @CRLF
$sStr &= "val: " & $oDict.Item("val") & @CRLF
$sStr &= "VaL: " & $oDict.Item("VaL")
MsgBox(32,"Variable",$sStr)

[czardas]

@Shanheavel FASM looks very interesting.

[BrewManNH]

I don't agree. That's matter of perspective and from my perspective case sensitive is more natural solution. Besides, argument that all serious programming languages are case sensitive is pretty strong.

I disagree, case sensitive is not more natural, everyone knows that Dog and dog refer to a canine in written English, but in programming they aren't the same. SomeVariable should be the same as someVariable, it's much more natural that they mean the same thing because that's how humans think. My tongue in cheek reference could very well describe a real world situation where 2 variables with the same letters but different case can mean two completely opposite things in code. As a general rule you probably shouldn't ever do something like that, but if the language was written that way, then you can get away with it. Is that good coding practice? I'd say no.

What if you write a program that used the word "Sleep" to put a computer system to sleep, and "sleep" to wake it back up and someone's finger slipped off the caps lock key when programming it? Some random bug gets inserted that randomly puts your computer to sleep and you can't figure out why, because the compiler doesn't see that you use the same word for 2 different operations.

As to other programming languages having case sensitive variables, there's probably just as many that aren't.

Edited March 22, 2013 by BrewManNH

[trancexx]

What if you write a program that used the word "Sleep" to put a computer system to sleep, and "sleep" to wake it back up and someone's finger slipped off the caps lock key when programming it? Some random bug gets inserted that randomly puts your computer to sleep and you can't figure out why, because the compiler doesn't see that you use the same word for 2 different operations.

If programmer deliberately uses "Sleep" for one thing and "sleep" for completely different then he has bigger issues with his coding than case sensitivity. What you describe is typical case of code obfuscation, process of making code deliberately less readable. You render your main argument invalid by saying things like that.

As to other programming languages having case sensitive variables, there's probably just as many that aren't.

Ehh, right.

[czardas]

Case sensitivity allows many more options with less bloat, and has merit for this reason if no other. Sure naming your variables as Bull, Collie and Sheep is fine; but with Dog dOg and doG you know they are all dogs.

I try to be consistant when naming variables. Also I don't like it when I see all lower case for function names such as: bitor, or keywords such as global. I would say it is not absolutely necessary to use case sensitivity for this project, but I do see the logic behind Shanheavel's choice. Besides being effective, Azijo's hex naming solution is still a bit tricky. Although not a preprocessor, I would say the technique is a type of preprocessing - conversion to case insensitive (hexadecimal character string) variable names.

Edited March 23, 2013 by czardas

[Shanheavel]

@AZJIO

Next unconventional way. I don't like working with objects, but it's nice that there are still people who have original ideas. I did test with your both methods.

I've a list of the most important system functions (more then 2400 names):

For $line = 1 To $aLine[0]
Assign(StringToBinary($aLine[$line]), $line)
$oDict.Add($aLine[$line], $line)
Next

I compared times of loops, which have to get one of the last functions name with every round.

For $i = 1 To 1000
$sData = Eval(StringToBinary("WSAAsyncGetProtoByNumber"))
Next
...
For $i = 1 To 1000
$sData = $oDict.Item("WSAAsyncGetProtoByNumber")
Next

My research shows that the first is about 15-40% faster. But it's good to have a comparison.

[BrewManNH]

If programmer deliberately uses "Sleep" for one thing and "sleep" for completely different then he has bigger issues with his coding than case sensitivity. What you describe is typical case of code obfuscation, process of making code deliberately less readable. You render your main argument invalid by saying things like that.

No, I think it makes my poiint. Why would you use 2 words for variable names with only the case of some of the letters being different? What possible use is there for it? It makes your code much harder to trouble-shoot if you do that.

[czardas]

It makes your code much harder to trouble-shoot if you do that.

I would say that depends on the type of information you want to convey with the name. If you want a major or minor variant of something, normally refered to by a single name, then it should be easier than using a different unrecognized name. If you wish to cionvey more information, you could treat upper case as representing one, and lower case as representing zero. If I decide to sort a list of names and they are called something like 'majorItem' and 'minorItem', they are liikely to become separtated by a name such as 'maxValue'. I think there are valid reasons. Edited March 23, 2013 by czardas