Python indentation deters newbies?

[Roy Smith]

"beliavsky at aol.com" <beliavsky at 127.0.0.1:7501> wrote:

> Ok, here is something short but more realistic and IMO not "ugly".
> 
> You may want to exit a nested loop when testing if a condition involving
> several variables is met, such as searching for a zero of a multivariate
> function. 
> 
> In Python you can print i,j,k and exit() when m == 0, but in a larger program
> you may want more control.
> 
> program xnest_loop
> ! find a Pythagorean triple
> n = 5
> ido: do i=1,n
>    do j=1,n
>       ij = i**2 + j**2
>       do k=1,n
>          m = ij - k**2
>          if (m == 0) exit ido
>       end do
>    end do
> end do ido
> if (m == 0) then
>    print*,i,j,k
> else
>    print*,"no triple"
> end if
> end program xnest_loop

That's easy (and relatively common).  I'd factor out the loop you labled 
"ido:" into a separate function, and have your "exit ido" become a 
return statement.  There's nothing Python-specific about that; I'd use 
the same refactoring strategy in C, Fortran, etc.  I'm a big fan of 
small, easy to understand, functions.