ANN: Dao Language v.0.9.6-beta is release!

[Rick Wotnaz]

Zeljko Vrba <mo.dor at fly.srk.fer.hr> wrote in
news:slrndpmk13.mlu.mordor at fly.srk.fer.hr: 

> On 2005-12-10, Tom Anderson <twic at urchin.earth.li> wrote:
>>
>> ED IS THE STANDARD TEXT EDITOR.
>>
> And:
>      INDENTATION
>           SUCKS
>                BIG
>      TIME.
> 
> Using indentation without block termination markers is 
opposite
> of the way we write spoken language, terminating each 
sentence
> with . Ever wondered why we use such things in written 
language,
> when people are much better in guessing what the writer 
wanted
> to say then computers? 
> 

I believe I may have seen cases in written "spoken 
language" where paragraphs were indented, or otherwise 
separated with whitespace. It's even possible that I've 
seen some examples of written languages that use no periods 
at all! And what's more, I've seen more than one *computer* 
language that uses no terminating periods! Why, it boggles 
the mind. 

Despite the arguments advanced by those whose previous 
computer languages used braces and semicolons, there 
actually are more ways to separate complete statements than 
with punctuation. 

Make a grocery list. Do you terminate each item with 
punctuation? Write a headline for a newspaper. Is 
punctuation always included? Read a mediaeval manuscript. 
Do you find punctuation? Whitespace? How about Egyptian 
hieroglyphs, Chinese ideograms, Ogham runes? 

Because you're accustomed to one set of conventions, you 
may find Python's set strange at first. Please try it, and 
don't fight it. See if your objections don't fade away. If 
you're like most Python newbies, you'll stop thinking about 
brackets before long, and if you're like a lot of us, 
you'll wonder what those funny squiggles mean when you are 
forced to revert to one of those more primitive languages.

-- 
rzed