Case sensivity in grammar items

[Adrian--1]

The "Grammar Item" window has a tick box for "Match character case" and another tick box for "This element is case sensitive". Both are mentioned on the help page on "Editing a Grammar Item". What is the difference between the functions of these two boxes?

Adrian
BC3 3.0.15 build 9758.

[Michael Bulgrien]

I might be wrong... but my understanding is that:

[ ] Match character case

defines whether the grammar itself is case sensitive. If the checkbox is checked and the case in the text file is different than the defined grammar, then the text will not be considered as a match to the grammar (affects syntax high-lighting, etc)

[ ] This element is case sensitive

defines whether or not a change in case will be treated as an important difference. If the checkbox is not checked, difference in case will be treated as unimportant in a text compare.

In some cases, the difference here can be subtle. In general, if the grammar really is case sensitive, then you should check both options. If the grammar is not case sensitive, then you can choose whether or not to check the second checkbox to make case differences important or unimportant.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Perhaps renaming the second option to:

[ ] Treat case differences as important

would clear up some of the confusion???

[Jorrit Neleman]

Can someone from Scooter Software confirm that the above stated is correct? I am also wondering what the difference is between the two checkboxes. The help does not help in this case. Thx!

[Aaron]

Hello,

The above is correct and defines the difference between the checkboxes. If you are having trouble with the Help, please note that you can click the '?' button next to the 'X' Close button of any dialog, and it will help take you directly to the article.

For further detail, try experimenting with literal text. For example, if you define a new element with Match Character case enabled as "test"
then the text in your file "test" will match and be that element, but "Test" will not. Disable this option and "test" and "Test" are both detected as the element.

For character case as Important, if enabled, then "test" vs "Test" will be always marked as an Important change, and if disabled it will be an Unimportant (blue or ignorable) change.

Note, if you define a combination where "test" is the element and aligned with "Test" as not the element, the difference in elements will be detected as (an important or unimportant) change even if the characters appear equal.

[Aaron]

I should add, in the Text Compare, click your blinking cursor into the word (between two characters of the word) and the program will show the detected element name in the bottom status bar of each pane. This is how you can tell what the main comparison is detecting as grammar elements at a cursor position.

[Jorrit Neleman]

ok, thanx for the explanation!