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[Seebs]

On 2010-11-02, Steven D'Aprano <steve at REMOVE-THIS-cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> I've lost more time to reading people's bitching about indentation than I 
> have dealing with indentation problems.

Doesn't totally surprise me.  :)

> But then, I don't insist on using tools which are broken by design.

Neither do I.

> If your email server converts plain text to HTML, it is broken.

Yup.  I have an open ticket with the IT department.  :)

> If your 
> editor changes spaces to tabs, or visa versa, without being told to do so 
> (either by an explicit command or an obvious setting), then your editor 
> is broken.

Yes.  But that's the thing -- I *want* that behavior for every other tool,
file format, or other thing I work with.

> If you are stuck with broken mail servers and broken editors and broken 
> tools because of political reasons, then you have my sympathy. But stop 
> insisting that everybody has to carry the overhead of your work-arounds 
> for your broken tools.

I have made no such insistance.  I have not said Python should change.  I
have not said other people should want what I want.  I'm not the one telling
other people that editors they've used happily for twenty years without
any problems are clearly wrong.

I have merely observed that Python is, in this respect, gratuitously
brittle.  It doesn't observe the robustness principle; it is
conservative in what it accepts, and in particular, is vulnerable to a
category of problem which is fairly common, well-known, and likely to
remain common for the next few decades.

There are reasons for it to be this way, and I don't object to the
existence of people who prefer that side of the tradeoff.  I do dislike
it when people smugly tell me off for having different preferences.

-s
-- 
Copyright 2010, all wrongs reversed.  Peter Seebach / usenet-nospam at seebs.net
http://www.seebs.net/log/ <-- lawsuits, religion, and funny pictures
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I am not speaking for my employer, although they do rent some of my opinions.