PEP scepticism

[Glyph Lefkowitz]

On Sun, 1 Jul 2001, Roy Smith wrote:

> Having now used python for about 4 years, I still think
> indentation-for-grouping was a dumb idea.  The problem is that it is
> just too easy to add or delete whitespace by accident (and without
> noticing), especially when cutting and pasting hunks of code from one
> place to another.  When such whitespace munging makes the code look
> ugly, it's simply a minor annoyance.  When it changes the meaning of
> the code, it's a language design mistake.

Rather, it's a usage mistake.  Why are you copying and pasting so much
code without reading it before you use it?  Most editors since after 'ed'
have been able to display whitespace.  Some are even able to replace
spaces with tabs, although this advanced technology must be licensed from
microsoft, it comes with their "emacs" software :-)

When I discovered Python's whitespace, I had a knee jerk reaction to it.  
Once I got into the language, I discovered that I really liked it and now
I just *love* scoping-by-indentation; I feel silly typing braces in a
language which requires them.  (even english <0.6 wink>)

now-I-just-have-a-knee-jerk-reaction-to-knee-jerk-reactions-ly y'rs,

                      ______      __   __  _____  _     _
                     |  ____ |      \_/   |_____] |_____|
                     |_____| |_____  |    |       |     |
                     @ t w i s t e d m a t r i x  . c o m
                     http://twistedmatrix.com/users/glyph