Collective memory

[Tim Shoppa]

Charles Shannon Hendrix <shannon at news.widomaker.com> wrote in message news:<rj5feb.2hq.ln at escape.shannon.net>...
> In article <bec993c8.0307080602.7d5d132e at posting.google.com>, Tim Shoppa wrote:
> 
> > And it's not the same as Makefiles, either.  Everybody has at one time
> > been bitten by how 8 spaces is not at all the same in a Makefile as
> > one tab; and it doesn't help that with many editing/viewing tools that it
> > is impossible to see the difference.
> 
> Listing one bad thing to defend another?

I don't think the choice made in Python is bad.  Different, yes.  I usually
think that "Different is good", in fact :-).

> I hate that part of make too.  
> 
> However, its very easy to tab a makefile properly, because the logic
> is implicit in the rule sets.  You just find each rule and indent its
> members properly.  It's not ambiguous.
> 
> You also get an error...

Not always.  GNU Make is pretty good about flagging errors, but many other
make utilities fail silently in the same circumstances.

> > Compare that to all the punctuation marks that *some* other languages require.
> > Remember the Dilbert where PHB complains that his programmers are using
> > way too many semicolons? :-)
> 
> Don't get me started on code reviews by non-programmers.
> 
> Somewhere I have one saved, that I still can't figure out.

I'd love to see it!  I keep a couple on my office walls where "EXTREME CHANCE
OF FATALITY" is the conclusion.

Tim.