visual indentation

[achrist at easystreet.com]

Hilbert wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I'm using python to output RIB streams for Renderman.
> The RIB stream is a bunch of statements which describes
> a 3d image. The Rib standard allows for blocks which we
> usually indent for better visualization for example:
> 
> WorldBegin
>     Color [1 1 1]
>     Surface "constant"
>     Sphere(1.0, -1.0, 1.0, 360)
> WorldEnd
> 
> I'm using CGKit in python which has a Renderman binding,
> so to output the same RIB I'd write:
> 
> RiWorldBegin()
>     RiColor(1.0,1.0,1.0)
>     RiSurface('constant')
>     RiSphere(1.0,-1.0,1.0,360)
> RiWorldEnd()
> 
> But I get an error, because python interprets my indentation
> as a block in the python code. So the only way to write this
> is without the indentation:
> 
> RiWorldBegin()
> RiColor(1.0,1.0,1.0)
> RiSurface('constant')
> RiSphere(1.0,-1.0,1.0,360)
> RiWorldEnd()
> 
> But this is a lot harder to read.
> 
> Is there any way to use such "visual" indentation in python?
> 

If the code is purely sequential, how about something like this:

import string
def RunTheseStatements(s):
	stmts = map(string.strip, s.split("\n"))
	for stmt in stmts:
		eval(stmt)		

RunTheseStatements("""


RiWorldBegin()
    RiColor(1.0,1.0,1.0)
    RiSurface('constant')
    RiSphere(1.0,-1.0,1.0,360)
RiWorldEnd()


""")


Al