do people really complain about significant whitespace?

[John Machin]

infidel wrote:
> Where are they-who-hate-us-for-our-whitespace?  Are "they" really that
> stupid/petty?  Are "they" really out there at all?  "They" almost sound
> like a mythical caste of tasteless heathens that "we" have invented.

All societies demonise outsiders to some extent. It's an unfortunate
human (and animal) trait. In some societies, this is directed from the
top. Very fortunately, this is AFAICT not the case in the Python
community.

> It just sounds like so much trivial nitpickery that it's hard to
> believe it's as common as we've come to believe.

So just block your ears when the propaganda vans with the loud-speakers
on top drive past your dwelling :-)

.......................................

However, meaninglessly significant whitespace at the *other* end of a
line can be annoying:

#>>> a = \
... 1
#>>> a
1
#>>> b = \
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    b = \
         ^
SyntaxError: invalid token

Huh? Can't see what the problem is? Maybe this exaggerated example may
help:

#>>> c = \
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    c = \
                      ^
SyntaxError: invalid token

Cheers,
John