On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 11:47:34AM -0600, Chad Walstrom wrote: [snip]
I have a love-hate relationship with the significant whitespace.
I have a hate-hate relationship with it. I much prefer free-style syntax where the programmer is allowed to use his best judgment on how to indent the code. Of course, in less-than-ideal projects, or projects with less-then-ideal programmers, this could result in a mess, but I'm speaking of personal preference here.
Problem is that in languages which allow "free-style syntax" you're not allowed free-style syntax at all. You're required to match }'s with {'s (or the local language equivolents) and end all lines with ; (except for some cases when you don't have to). This is still a restriction of the same order, just with different characters and rules.
Oddly enough ever since picking up Python a few years back I've never once felt constrained by its significant whitespace. I felt a profound relief, however, when dealing with other people's code becuase it looked and behaved just like mine. There is enough freedom in the rules that a programmer doesn't have to worry about the end of the screen yet there is enough sensible structure to make the code readable. I mean, let's get down to it....
if foo {
bar;
} else {
baz;
}if foo
{
bar;
}
else
{
baz;
}if foo {
bar;
}
else {
baz;
}....if you remove the points of contention between those three you're left with...
if foo
bar
else
baz...which is a colon away from legal Python syntax. :P
--
Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
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