On 6-Feb-09, at 3:53 AM, Scott Dial wrote:
Riobard Zhan wrote:
Your strong association with "here comes a suite" should come from indentation, that's how Python works.
Your argument makes no sense, since an indention does not automatically indicate a suite.
Indentation does not automatically indicate a statement, either. Why do you omit semicolons?
Huh? You want to add more line noise? The colon is a pleasant compromise between the "please give me some indicator that is visual" and the "please don't make me type extra characters" crowds. Your arguments that people who don't want to type them shouldn't don't hold up when you consider that other people have to read the code, and they are not given the option to put the colons back in upon reading it. And there is the simple fact that a piece of code will be read more often than it is ever wrote. Does your burden out weigh all of the potential readers of your code?
So you do agree colons are line noise? Colons are unpleasant for me not because I have to type them (though this certainly is a factor, too), but I have to *read* them every time I read Python code and they disrupt the mental flow. You are assuming colons improve readability, which I disagree. Readability comes from indentation, not from punctuation. If you logic holds, you might have to use semicolons as well.