Python syntax in Lisp and Scheme

Pascal Bourguignon spam at thalassa.informatimago.com
Tue Oct 14 21:12:22 EDT 2003


prunesquallor at comcast.net writes:
> [...]
> I thought that whitespace was significant to Python.
> 
> My computer does not display whitespace.  I understand that most
> computers do not.  There are few fonts that have glyphs at the space
> character.
> 
> Since having the correct amount of whitespace is *vital* to the
> correct operation of a Python program, it seems that the task of
> maintaining it is made that much more difficult because it is only
> conspicuous by its absence.

:-)

That remembers me that when  the languages had significant spaces, the
programming was  done with forms, sheets of  physical paper preprinted
with empty spaces:


|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
 1           7        12

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
 1           7        12

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
 1           7        12

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
 1           7        12

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
 1           7        12

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
 1           7        12

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
 1           7        12

|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
 1           7        12

and you could then fill the blanks and have the significant spaces and
columns nicely visualized.

I assume  python editors now  show this kind  of form as  a background
bitmap, don't they.

-- 
__Pascal_Bourguignon__
http://www.informatimago.com/
Do not adjust your mind, there is a fault in reality.




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