GNU bug report logs - #12988
isearch fails to persistently indicate case sensitivity

Previous Next

Full log

View this message in rfc822 format

From: "Drew Adams" <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
To: "'Juri Linkov'" <juri <at> jurta.org>
Cc: 'Kelly Dean' <kellydeanch <at> yahoo.com>, 12988 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#12988: [PATCH] RE: bug#12988: isearch fails to persistently indicate case sensitivity
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:18:24 -0800

> >  Isearch    - case sensitive,   strict whitespace
> >  ISEARCH    - case insensitive, strict whitespace
> >  I search   - case sensitive,   lax    whitespace
> >  I SEARCH   - case insensitive, lax    whitespace
> 
> ISEARCH is too loud.  All-caps text usually indicates SHOUTING ;-)
> 
> What do you think about altering only the capital letter:
> `Isearch' vs `isearch'.

I disagree, but please do whatever you like.  I disagree because the change from
one to the other is MUCH clearer using uppercase: There is far more visual
difference between Isearch and ISEARCH than between Isearch and isearch.

I agree that ALL CAPS IN TEXT IS LIKE SHOUTING.  This is not a paragraph,
however, but a short symbol.  And here we actually WANT to draw attention to the
change/difference (IMHO).  I, at lest, *want* the change to be easily to notice.

[FWIW, all caps is also a programming idiom as the way case-insensitive testing
is typically done (convert everything to uppercase, then test).  (Could equally
be lowercase, I guess, but uppercase seems to be what is used.)  So at least
some (esp. old perhaps) programmers associate UPPERCASE with case-insensitivity
(and even with old, uppercase-only languages and keyboards).]

But I have no objection to all lowercase instead of all uppercase.  I have no
objection to anything else you might choose.

I have no objection to:

 isearch    - case-insensitive
 Isearch    - case-sensitive
 I search   -                and lax whitespace
 I*search   -                and regexp
 I* search  -                and lax ws and regexp
 ...

or whatever.

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.