A modest indentation proposal

[Bernie]

Hi All,

The indentation rule employed by Python is actually, IMO, one of the main 
reason why Python code are so readable.  The first time I saw this type of 
indentation technique was in Miranda, back in my school days.  Have not 
seen it used anywhere else since then, until I found Python.

Erann, I think you find the indentation annoying because you choose 2 spaces 
as your tab size, hence making the block not as apparent as it could 
be.  Try four spaces, or use Tools/Scripts/pindent.py if you really cannot 
stand it.


Bernie


Erann Gat wrote:
> 
> The subject of syntactically-significant indentation seems to dominate a
> lot of discussions on Python.  Personally I've found it to be less of a
> problem than I thought it would be, but annoying nonetheless.  It also IMO
> makes the language unsuitable for mission-critical applications.  It's
> just too easy to screw up indentation (particularly when cutting and
> pasting large blocks of code) without realizing it.
> 
> I have a suggestion for how to make people like me who are uneasy with
> syntactically significant indentation feel more comfortable while at the
> same time not alienating those who thing that it's a really cool feature.
> The proposal is based on the observation that Python already has the
> equivalent of an open-brace for code blocks.  It's the colon.  To see that
> this is so you have only to observe that a good editor can automatically
> indent code properly at the beginnings of blocks, but not at the end.  The
> solution to the problem is to add an optional end-of-block identifier.
> 
> I propose to use a semicolon at the end of a line to denote the end of a
> block, e.g.:
> 
> for i in l:        # Colon signals beginning of block
>   foo()
>   baz(); boff()    # Semicolon separating statements works as usual
>   bar();           # Semicolon at end of line signals end of block
> biff()
> 
> This convention is 100% backwards-compatible with current practice, that
> is, code written using this convention runs with no problems in Python as
> it currently stands.
> 
> What I would like to see in terms of support for this convention from the
> Python community is two things:
> 
> 1) Editor support for this convention so that a semicolon at the end of a
> line causes the editor to unindent, and
> 
> 2) Parser support.  It would be enough to simply give a warning if there
> is a discrepancy between the block structure defined by indentation and
> that defined by the semicolon-at-end-of-line convention (i.e. "Warning:
> end of block detected without trailing semicolon").  Making this optional
> so that die-hard indentation fans could turn it off would also be fine.
> 
> Comments?
> 
> Erann Gat
> gat at jpl.nasa.gov