Compare source code

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Thu Nov 4 23:25:42 EDT 2010


On 11/4/2010 10:47 PM, Rustom Mody wrote:

> As far as I am concerned python would not be python if its
> indentation=structure went.  However the original question -- mixing
> tabs and spaces is bad -- has got lost in the flames.  Do the most
> die-hard python fanboys deny this?

Of course not. Not mixing tabs and spaces has been the recommendation 
for perhaps a decade.

> And if not is it asking too much (say in python3) that mixing tabs and spaces
 > be flagged as an error or at least warning?

Making all mixture an error was considered but rejected as causing too 
much gratuitous breakage. One reason: you cut code from some source with 
the 'other' style and paste into code with 'your' style. Should you be 
*forced* (rather than merely advised) to convert before running the 
result even once. Guido decided that there was enough breakage from 
important things like unicode text and all new-style classes.

On the other hand, someone said that ambiguous mixtures now are prohibited.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy




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