Significant whitespace

[Emile van Sebille]

On 1/1/2010 5:05 PM Steven D'Aprano said...
> In Python terms, imagine if we could write
>
>      foriinrange(10):
>
> instead of the usual
>
>      for i in range(10):
>
> Since the colon makes it unambiguous that it is some sort of block
> construct, and it starts with "for", it must be a for loop. Pretty
> horrible, yes?


Yes -- early on I got stung by something similar.  My first programming 
job (1977?) was working in a basic dialect called Buisness Basic Level 
II (BBII).  To delete a record in the file you used a remove statement. 
  White space on the line was optional, allowing you to write lines like 
'100 remove(1,key=k$)' and '100 fori=1to10'.  REM was how a remark 
statement began, which allowed statements like "100 REM comment".  I was 
sent on-site to a customer running the prior version (BBI).  I didn't 
realize the REMOVE command changed between versions from REKEY, and it 
was only after a more experienced programmer co-wroker pointed out that 
my REMOVE statement was being interpreted as a REM that I finally found 
the bug I'd created.

Manuals and documentation, while often lacking, are as often underrated.

Emile