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[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 02 Nov 2010 19:26:56 +0000, Tim Harig wrote:

> I agree with Seebs, Python is the only language I know that promotes the
> use of spaces over tabs; 

Really? I'm not aware of *any* language that promotes tabs over spaces. I 
thought the tabs vs spaces war was mostly won by spaces over a decade ago 
(apart from a few plucky freedom fighters who will never surrender).


> and there are equally picky syntaxs (ie,
> Makefiles) that mandate the use of tabs.  I personally prefer tabs as it
> lets *me* decide how far the apparent indentations are in the code. You
> may like four spaces; but, I agree with Linus Torvalds that eight spaces
> is much clearer.  The beautiful thing about tabs is that we can both set
> our tab stops to match our own viewing preferences.

Actually I agree with you about tabs. I think tabs are far more logical 
and sensible. But I'm stuck with broken tools that don't deal with tabs, 
and with PEP 8 that mandates the use of spaces, and popular opinion that 
says make is crazy for using tabs.

So, I bite my lip, stop using broken tools that make dealing with space-
indents painful, and just deal with it. And you know what? It's not so 
bad after all.


> This is Python's most noticable blemish outside of the community.
> Everybody knows that Python is the language that forces you to use a
> particular style of formatting; and, that is a turn-off for many people.

Their loss. I don't miss the flame wars over the One True Brace Style. 
There are enough disagreements over coding conventions without adding to 
them.


> It is a big mistake that whenever the issue arises, the community
> effectively attacks anybody who might have disagreements with the
> tradeoffs made for the Python language.  This tends to set people on the
> defensive and gives them a bad taste about the language as a whole.

That's very insightful. Why don't you apply some of that insight to the 
other side? It is *incredibly* annoying to see the same old people making 
the same old snide remarks about the same old issues over and over again, 
particularly when:

* it's not an issue for thousands of other users;
* even if it were an issue, if you use the right tool for the job, the 
issue disappears;
* and even if there is no right tool for the job, the feature isn't going 
to change;
* and even if it would change, the people doing the whinging aren't going 
to volunteer to make the change.


> It would be much better if the community would simply acknowledge that
> this is a tradeoff the the language has made and one which is often
> misunderstood by many first time Python programmers.

Been there, done that. This is *old news*.



-- 
Steven