Python and Ruby

[Stephen Hansen]

On Sat, Jan 30, 2010 at 8:58 AM, tanix <tanix at mongo.net> wrote:

> The very idea of using a number of blanks to identify your block level
> is as insane as it gets. First of all, combinations of blanks and tabs,
> depending on how your ide is setup to expand tabs, may get you bugs,
> you'd never imagine in your wild dreams.
>
> Braces is the most reliable way to identify blocks.
>
> Sane compilers ignore blanks altogether.
>

God forbid the compiler use the same syntactical structure as the human eye
in reading code and assigning meaning.

I mean, everyone knows that in C, no one ever has any issues with
indentation levels causing human confusion and misunderstanding between what
they think the structure of the code is and what the compiler interprets it
as.

Also, we all know very well that no modern IDE's or text editors let you
manage tabs and spaces in a consistent fashion, and Python doesn't error out
when you use inconsistent or nonsensical indentation. It just lets you
create anonymous blocks of code when you indent too far in for no reason at
all.

--S

P.S. Yes, my response is juvenile and snarky. However, I am weary of the
imbecilic OMG WITESPACE IS RONG AND STUPID response. If you don't like
whitespace being structurally significant, so be it-- aesthetics are
subjective. If its not for you, its not for you. Python isn't for everyone.
"Its insane", "Its stupid", "Its causes all kinds of confusion", "Its causes
all kinds of hard to find bugs" is just complete, utter, unsupportable
nonsense.
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