semicolon at end of python's statements

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 10:33 AM, Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> wrote:
> In article <mailman.332.1377735563.19984.python-list at python.org>,
>  Mohsen Pahlevanzadeh <mohsen at pahlevanzadeh.org> wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I'm C++ programmer and unfortunately put semicolon at end of my
>> statements in python.
>>
>> Quesion:
>> What's really defferences between putting semicolon and don't put?
>
> In theory, nothing.  In practice, all the real Python programmers will
> make fun of you.
>
> Somewhat more seriously, every language has its own way of doing things.
> There's the set of things the language allows you to do, and the
> somewhat smaller set of things that have become accepted as the "proper"
> way to do things in that language.  For Python, putting semicolons at
> the ends of statements falls into the first set but not the second.

This is about Perl, but may be of interest.

http://www.perl.com/pub/2007/12/06/soto-11.html

One of his main points is that languages differ primarily in what they
force you to say - not what you're able to express. C forces you to
declare the ends of statements with semicolons. Python forces you to
be consistent with indentation. Smalltalk (if I have this correct)
forces you to put parentheses in expressions like a+b*c to declare
order of operations. German forces you to match das/die/der to the
noun it's referring to. Doing what a completely different programming
language forces you to do is like speaking with the wrong grammar
("Murdered in the bed we will be! One day we will in bed find
ourselves stone dead!"[1]); native speakers will understand you, but
it doesn't sound fluent.

ChrisA

[1] Mit der knife in der chess! Sun on the Stubble. Great book.