Whitespace as syntax (was Re: Python Rocks!)

[Bijan Parsia]

Aahz Maruch <aahz at netcom.com> wrote:

> In article <38A19E79.5E88D2FC at prescod.net>,
> Paul Prescod  <paul at prescod.net> wrote:
> >
> >This annoys me not only because it holds the ideas in Smalltalk back
> >from popularity but because it strikes me as arrogant. Squeak's
> >designers think that they are so much smarter than the rest of us that
> >they must "correct" every decision we have ever made including what side
> >the scrollbar should live on. 

Er...

        1) left flappable scrollbars antedate just about every other
scollbar placement decision; the reason they're still there in Squeak is
that Squeak started with the old Apple Smalltalk-80 system. So,
*literally*, it's legacy code. I've grown quite used to it, though it
did freak me out at first.
        2) There's a simple preference to change scrollbar placement to
inboard, right side. This works in the Morphic environment (which is the
active one). There are goodies to do similar things in the MVC
environment.

Paul, please spent a modicom more time on research before making claims
about people's motives and attitudes. Thanks.

> >Just give me a programming language
> >please!

Gnu Smalltalk. Little Smalltalk. There are smalltalks without IDEs.
There are a (very) few people who even use Emacs. Many of the extant
implementations can be made headless with various support for
alternative interaction with the system.

I won't go into the history. 

>> You'll see more of that arrogance on www.smalltalk.org .

One site. Run by one person. An advocacy site, no less. Lovely
generalization.

Methinks that there are many arrogances to be found in many places.

> I'll say.  I went there to further my self-education only to find that
> the official FAQ is only available in PDF and Postscript.

It's not official. It's *an* FAQ. There are several. FAQs in general are
services to the community. Plus, with a little searching, you can find
HTML ones.

I'd dearly love to say something snarky about someone trying to
"further" their "self education" who 1) can't make it any further than
that, and 2) instead of asking someone for aid gets all huffy and posts
derogatory comments. But, I shan't :)

>  They had the
> nerve to suggest that people wishing to post on the newsgroups read the
> FAQ first.

As is standard. Standard *netiquette*. And plain good sense.

I'm done.

Cheers,
Bijan Parsia.