One benefit to uppercase: is that an ell or a one?
Upper case letters are more easily distinguishable, especially on low-res devices (like the old CRTs).
Upper case letters are more easily distinguishable, especially on low-res devices (like the old CRTs).
No, the real reason is that upper case was customary for telegrams and then teletypes. Upper case was well established before CRT displays came into play.
`if`, `then`, `else`, `while`, `return`
vs `goto`, `comefrom`
... Well, it's arguably superficially a better argument than Dijkstra's, but it doesn't account for `for`, so I'm not convinced.
All have characteristics that set them apart from potential lookalikes - the bar through the 0 is one excellent example - but it’s up to the font designers to take readability into account, and most designers are looking at reading English prose, not code. They don’t think “my font might be used to render a URL in a context where a user will need to make an essential security decision based on whether the string they’re reading contains an l or an I.
I sometimes wish monochrome displays were more of a thing. There is e-paper tech and text on it looks great for exactly the same reasons. but I would like to see what a high resolution monochrome LCD or oled display could do.
Monochrome LCDs are out there, but they mostly burn a hole in your wallet. They're used in medical imaging, but there's no other mainstream market for them, so the prices are high because the unit count is low.