Naming: Why should named constants be all uppercase in C++/Java?

Question

I know, that for C++ and Java it is a well established naming convention, that constants should be written all uppercase, with underscores to separate words. Like this (Java

Answer 1

Coding conversions are to improve readability. You don't have to use letters. Java allows $ symbol for example.

public final static Color $$ = COLOR.WHITE;
public final static Color $_ = COLOR.BLACK;

You could number your variables too, but that doesn't mean its a good idea. ;)