PEP scepticism

[Roy Smith]

Andrew Kuchling <akuchlin at mems-exchange.org> wrote:
> I've noticed that in online forums, people now rarely beat up on
> Python for the language itself, except for the old reliable
> indentation knee-jerk reaction.

Just out of curiosity, how long must one dislike something before that 
dislike graduates from "knee-jerk reaction" to "considered opinion"?

Having now used python for about 4 years, I still think 
indentation-for-grouping was a dumb idea.  The problem is that it is just 
too easy to add or delete whitespace by accident (and without noticing), 
especially when cutting and pasting hunks of code from one place to 
another.  When such whitespace munging makes the code look ugly, it's 
simply a minor annoyance.  When it changes the meaning of the code, it's a 
language design mistake.

The reason people rarely beat up on it anymore is becuase it's a lost 
battle.  I continue to use python (despite the indenting problem) because 
there is enough other stuff in it that I like.  But I don't think it's fair 
to call it a "knee-jerk reaction".