visual indentation

[Cliff Wells]

On Fri, 2003-08-22 at 11:10, Hilbert wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm using python to output RIB streams for Renderman.
> The RIB stream is a bunch of statements which describes 
> a 3d image. The Rib standard allows for blocks which we
> usually indent for better visualization for example:
> 
> WorldBegin 
>     Color [1 1 1]
>     Surface "constant"
>     Sphere(1.0, -1.0, 1.0, 360)
> WorldEnd
> 
> I'm using CGKit in python which has a Renderman binding, 
> so to output the same RIB I'd write:
> 
> RiWorldBegin()
>     RiColor(1.0,1.0,1.0)
>     RiSurface('constant')
>     RiSphere(1.0,-1.0,1.0,360)
> RiWorldEnd()
> 
> But I get an error, because python interprets my indentation
> as a block in the python code. So the only way to write this 
> is without the indentation:
> 
> RiWorldBegin()
> RiColor(1.0,1.0,1.0)
> RiSurface('constant')
> RiSphere(1.0,-1.0,1.0,360)
> RiWorldEnd()
> 
> But this is a lot harder to read.
> 
> Is there any way to use such "visual" indentation in python?

How about this?  It creates a bit of unnecessary overhead (a single
tuple creation), but looks okay visually (and Emacs correctly indents
it):

RiWorldBegin()
(
    RiColor(1.0,1.0,1.0),
    RiSurface('constant'),
    RiSphere(1.0,-1.0,1.0,360),
)
RiWorldEnd()


Regards,

-- 
Cliff Wells, Software Engineer
Logiplex Corporation (www.logiplex.net)
(503) 978-6726  (800) 735-0555