[Python-Dev] status of development documentation

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 08:21 PM 12/21/2005 +0100, Fredrik Lundh wrote:
>Phillip J. Eby wrote:
>
> > > > And attempting to roundtrip HTML back to reST would lose far too much
> > > > information
> > >
> > >in a less dogmatic Python universe, that would be considered a major
> > >design flaw in ReST.
> >
> > Since when is having a more expressive source language than HTML a 
> flaw?  :)
>
>more syntax != more expressive.

reST is more expressive than HTML in terms of allowing meaningful choices 
for readability and *human* expression.  In reST, I have the choice of 
inlining a URL or deferring it to later, according to what's readable.  I 
can give links friendly names, and so on.

Your statement that more syntax != more expressive is true, but also 
irrelevant, because it doesn't imply any useful conclusions.

Python is more expressive than Java because of the syntax it adds, relative 
to Java.  Specialized syntax for lists and dictionaries, mappings, sequence 
iteration, etc. are precisely the things that make it more expressive for 
the human reader or writer of code.

But the thing that makes it more expressive is not the quantity of syntax, 
but the balanced selection of *task-appropriate* syntax for *human* 
use.  More syntax doesn't always mean more expressiveness or readability, 
but less syntax can often mean less expressiveness, readability, and usability.