3 ms·

Why did some ancient programming languages emphasize on CAPITAL LETTERS? Was there no "Shift" button on keyboards back then?

• pmcjones 3y ago
  Lower-case was not common on printers and terminals in the 1950s and 1960s (and into the 1970s).
• Sindisil 3y ago
  No, in some cases there were not. In addition, capitals served as a method of differentiation for language keywords and such.
  • riidom 3y ago
    Maybe worth to add that syntax highlighting was not a thing back then.
    • IIsi50MHz 3y ago
      Not nearly enough cycles for that. Nor core memory. Nor even the possibility of colours or font styles. You were lucky if you got a timeslot for your program and didn't get preempted. You were even luckier if you got both uppercase and lowercase letters. (-: * Nearly all this was before my time.
• themadturk 3y ago
  The Apple II computers, for example, had only upper-case characters in ROM (and screens were 40 characters wide). Lower -case characters would have required a second ROM, which obviously increased costs. Eventually models with lower-case capabilities were added, as was 80-column output.
• dsand 3y ago
  Ancient languages ran on ancient machines with 6-bit character sets. No available way to key in or print lowercase letters.