Whitespace as syntax (was Re: Python Rocks!)
Skip Montanaro
skip at mojam.com
Wed Feb 9 20:30:55 EST 2000
David> ... but as someone who in the past has occasionally wasted an
David> hour trying to fix a broken makefile because of some tab/space
David> mixup, I'm staying vigilent.
That's a somewhat different problem. In make tabs and spaces are indeed
treated differently. Where a tab is needed, a space won't do at all.
David> So my point is that what is needed is not religious wars but
David> advice from the experienced on how they avoid the pitfalls and
David> continuing refinement in the programming tools that keep us
David> programmers from having to worry about these things.
Two suggestions:
1. Use CVS, sccs, RCS or some similar tool to manage your source code.
That gives you a benchmark against which to check your code. In the
six years I've been using Python, I've only needed to correct
indentation botches a couple of times. If you use Emacs, I recommend
you look at ediff-revision as an excellent way to compare a file's
current version with earlier revisions.
2. Use python-mode (in Emacs/XEmacs) if you don't already. Other text
editors (vim, BBedit, Alpha, etc.) have support for indenting blocks
of code automatically. Search the archives for your favorites. I
assume Emacs+python-mode in what follows.
Select the block you want to reindent, then use C-c > or C-c < to
rigidly change the indentation of the selected block. This works
well with pasted blocks as well. When you paste a block of text into
the midst of another block, simply hit C-x C-x to reselect the region
(I use XEmacs, which doesn't automatically select yanked text - GNU
Emacs may not require this), then hit C-c > or C-c < as required to
get that block of text to line up properly with the surrounding code.
(Internally, it should already be correct unless there was a problem
with it before the cut.)
Skip Montanaro | http://www.mojam.com/
skip at mojam.com | http://www.musi-cal.com/
"Languages that change by catering to the tastes of non-users tend not to do
so well." - Doug Landauer
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