tabs do WHAT?

[Jim Althoff]

In case this thread gives the impression that
it is Guido against the rest of the world ...

I LOVE "the whitespace stuff"!  I'm thrilled every time
I type code and don't have to put in nasty
syntactic delimiters (maybe I get my thrills
too easily  :-)  ).

By the way, here's an interesting experiment to
try if you have been using JPython together
with using lots of the Java APIs (a Swing-based
GUI application, for example).  Take a couple
hundred lines of your JPython code and
translate it into pure Java.  Even though much
of your code is already straightforward Java
API calls anyway, you will be amazed at how
much of your effort reduces to
a boring and tedious exercise in
adding in LOTS of cluttering syntax:
braces, semi-colons, and paren.s as far
as the eye can see.  After spending lots of
pleasant time running the compiler over
and over and over, you will actually succeed in
putting all of the delimiters in the right places!
What could be more fulfilling!  This simple exercise
will surely give you a wonderful appreciation for
"the whitespace stuff".

Jim


At 02:34 AM 1/25/00 -0500, Tim Peters wrote:
>[Warren Postma]
> > If Guido reads this, please note my personal feature request
> > for Python 2.0:  Make the "whitespace" stuff optional, for
> > people who like weird syntactical features only. I'll love]
> > you forever. Thanks.
>
>[Thomas Hamelryck]
> > This will not happen.
>
>Good bet.
>
> > People here (including Guido Himself) get extremely picky
> > when the use of indentation is criticised.
>
>Guido hasn't responded one way or the other to indentation criticism in
>years, and I doubt you'll find one of his old responses being "extremely
>picky" either (unbending, yes, but conviction isn't pickiness).
>
> > They do not realize that this feature is an important obstacle
> > for many people
>
>Neither is Guido an idiot <0.9 wink>.  Of *course* he knows it's a
>show-stopper for some people.  But so are many other things.  Every language
>designer knows this, and the successful ones figure out early there's no
>future in trying to make everyone happy.  There is a future in keeping a
>language's philosophy consistent for as long as possible, and the use of
>indentation to denote block structure wasn't an arbitrary choice in Guido's
>view of the world.  He realizes it's an important obstacle; do "they"
>realize it's an important manifestation of Python's philosophy?
>
> > (and since these people have stopped using python they are
> > obviously not posting here).
>
>Then what keeps this thread going year after year <wink>?
>
> > Indentation is great, but should not be part of the syntax
> > of a language.
>
>like-sex-is-great-but-should-not-be-part-of-life-ly y'rs  - tim
>
>
>
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