allow line break at operators

[Prasad, Ramit]

>1.  Indentation as flow control was a bad idea.
>2.  People are subconsciously aware of this.
>3.  There is a HUGE degree of emotional investment in defending it.
>
>The responses I have seen on this issue are highly emotional, full of insults,
>full of blame-throwing, and utterly contrary to the basic engineering spirit
>I usually see in programming communities.  In other languages, and even in
>Python on any issue but this one, I regularly see people acknowledge
>shortcomings and explain either why they think the tradeoffs are good, or why
>they are willing to put up with it anyway.
>
>The characteristic vehemence and hostility this issue produces are the surest
>sign of people who have a desperate need not to acknowledge the elephant in
>the room.

What exactly is the downside to indentation as flow control? I am a fairly new programmer to Python, but the more I use it, the more I think it has the Right idea (for me at least). I find braces in Java/c[#,++] to be less than helpful in comparison to how people rave over. It allows for free form code sure, but half the time I was using indentation to figure out where conditional branching/loops started and stopped anyway! I will admit it was super useful in helping Eclipse to reformat with a more "readable" indentation. The only difference is that now it forces me to make more readable code instead of allowing me the freedom to make hard to read code. I suppose as an American I should be insulted at the lack of freedom. Hell, I own Apple products; I must be getting indoctrinated into a lack of freedom. :-P

I am not being vehement or hostile. At least I am attempting to be neither. I do not really feel emotionally invested in either because honestly, I will do whatever I have to for what I am trying to get done. If that requires me coding while only wearing hot pink or using braces I will do it. I am far more concerned with ease of coding, ability to do what I want, and occasionally (fairly rarely) if the running code will be "fast enough".

I am not sure why people are so stuck on braces. I figured other people would be like me and tired of having to do things like figuring out where I missed an end brace. 


Ramit


Ramit Prasad | JPMorgan Chase Investment Bank | Currencies Technology
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