What is the number of the PEP for adding indention to Python?

Alex Martelli aleax at aleax.it
Fri Jan 4 04:41:17 EST 2002


"Quentin Crain" <nanotech at europa.com> wrote in message
news:mailman.1010124306.24290.python-list at python.org...
    ...
> Python? If so, is there a document which explains why those design
> decisions that relate to the developer as a human were made, along with
> citations? If not, why is this always left out, not addressed, ignored?

In Python's case, my very personal and unofficial opinion about the
last question is that Guido van Rossum is outstanding at making the
right design decisions, while rationalizing and explaining why they
are right is not his core skill.

This is far from an unusual phenomenon.  In Renaissance times, the
idea that different people have different skills was not mainstream,
the theory being that an Architect would be just as good at talking
about his designs, as at designing them and supervising the building
process.  That's the theory.  Some specific architects may have almost
approached it (Alberti, Palladio).  But some of the most outstanding
practitioners, even then, were DOERS, *NOT* talkers: for example,
Biagio Rossetti's _writings_ about what he was doing, and why, are
feeble and fortunately almost non-existent.  He clearly knew what he
was doing, but the way he "talked" about it was in brick and stone,
not pen and paper.  One can immerse oneself in the large area of the
town of Ferrara that he single-handedly designed, and try to "get"
the why's of its excellence directly, or plunge into Bruno Zevi's
"Saper vedere la citta`" and take advantage of Zevi's nonpareil skill
for rationalization and exposition (...but note that Zevi, one of
the greatest _theoreticians_ and _polemists_ in post-war Architecture,
didn't design a single building, much less a town, worth of notice in
the many obituaries that marked his death two years ago... the ability
to think verbally and express the why's and wherefore's, and the
ability to actually conceive and effect well-functioning innovation,
are NOT really all that correlated, whatever the Renaissance may have
thought about that...!-).


Alex






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