Re: XHTML and CASE-SENSITIVITY

On 24 Feb 99, Walter Ian Kaye wrote:

> At 2:09p -0800 02/24/99, Daniel Austin wrote with bad line breaks:
> >	While I sympathize with those who would like HTML to use upper case
> > tags, this is unlikely to change. XML is case sensitive, and therefore the
> > case of element names must be specified in one way alone.
> > Given this, lower case was chosen.

> But WHY was lower case chosen over upper case?

Well, one could argue that many developers will still handroll a lot of their 
web pages (including XML pages) and since it's easier to type lowercase 
element names among regular text than to switch to uppercase.

And since XML, XHTML, et al are relatively new, probably a lot of 
developers are experimenting with text editors.

Ergo, lowercase element names.

> And why were the thousands(?) of web developers around the world never
> consulted about this, or given the chance to vote?

Because the thousands of web developers would argue and argue and an 
agreemement would take forever. Sooner or later somebody would have to 
put their foot down and make a decision.

> We're the ones who have to use it, so to not consult us about this is
> extremely rude, uncaring, and mean.

How do you use it? Using a special editor which generates the elements 
for you and even highlights syntax? If so, it's a moot point.

But since XML is an Internationalized application (as in Unicode text), 
uppercase vs. lowercase means nothing. Elements need not be in English, 
and not all languages have uppercase/lowercase characters. Folding case 
would create a lot of overhead and potential bugs.

Received on Friday, 26 February 1999 19:23:09 UTC