Re: [css3-namespace] Case sensitivity and XML namespace in document.

As soon as case-insensitivity is introduced a software implementation
is in a mixed-sensitivity world with respect to string processing.
Values and data are mostly case-sensitive. So you have to be very
careful to pick the right string compare function in each situation.

Comparing two strings in a case-insensitive way is more complex. We
take this for granted, because there is always a library which offers
the functionality. The problem is finding out the correspondence
between the upper and lowercase characters. This may be trivial for
our alphabet, but not necessarily for others.

In a programming language grammar it is under control, because we
choose the keywords and hence the alphabet. But anything that is
not declared in the lexer will be processed with the generic
case-insensitive string compare functions, which are much slower.

Werner.

Philip TAYLOR wrote:
> 
> 
> Werner Donné wrote:
> 
>> Having said that, I should add that I dislike case-insensitiveness
>> in any form. It has no advantage and only complicates string
>> processing.
> 
> With respect, neither case-sensitivity nor case-insensitivity have
> any particular advantage or disadvantage when compared to the other;
> it is only when one is forced to occupy a mixed-sensitivity world
> that the less common appears disadvantageous when compared to the
> more common, but which is less and which is more common depends
> very much on the universe of discourse ...
> 
> Philip Taylor
> 
> 

-- 
Werner Donné  --  Re
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B-3300 Tienen
tel: (+32) 486 425803	e-mail: werner.donne@re.be

Received on Monday, 11 September 2006 17:23:15 UTC