An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language?

[Grant Edwards]

On 2011-07-11, Thomas Jollans <t at jollybox.de> wrote:
> On 07/11/2011 03:51 PM, Anthony Kong wrote:
>> Hi, all,
>> 
>> Lately I am giving some presentations to my colleagues about the python
>> language. A new internal project is coming up which will require the use
>> of python.
>> 
>> One of my colleague asked an interesting:
>> 
>> /If Python use indentation to denote scope, why it still needs
>> semi-colon at the end of function declaration and for/while/if loop?/
>> 
>> My immediate response is: it allows us to fit statements into one line.
>> e.g. if a == 1: print a
>> 
>> However I do not find it to be a particularly strong argument. I think
>> PEP8 does not recommend this kind of coding style anyway, so one-liner
>> should not be used in the first place!
>
> Basically, it looks better, and is more readable.

And it makes adding a "python mode" to a programming editor almost
trivial.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I am a jelly donut.
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