First day beginner to python, add to counter after nested loop

[Antoon Pardon]

Op 30-10-13 15:22, Alister schreef:
> On Wed, 30 Oct 2013 13:42:37 +0100, Antoon Pardon wrote:
> 
>> Op 30-10-13 13:17, Chris Angelico schreef:
>>> On Wed, Oct 30, 2013 at 11:01 PM, Antoon Pardon
>>> <antoon.pardon at rece.vub.ac.be> wrote:
>>> I broadly agree with your post (I'm of the school of thought that
>>> braces are better than indentation for delimiting blocks), but I don't
>>> think this argument holds water. All you need to do is be consistent
>>> about tabs OR spaces (and I'd recommend tabs, since they're simpler and
>>> safer), and you'll never have this trouble.
>>
>> Easier said than done. First of all I can be as consistent as possible,
>> I can't just take code from someone else and insert it because that
>> other person may be consistenly doing it different from me.
> 
> I disagree it is very easy.

You can disagree, as much as you want. You don't get to define my
experience. Maybe all those things you enumerate are all easy, all
taken together they can makes it cumbersome at times.

> 1) make sure you editor is set to inset 4 spaces rather than tab when 
> pressing the tab key. consistency in your own code is now not an issue.
> 
> 2) when importing code from someone else a simple search & replace of tab 
> with 4 spaces will instantly correct the formatting on code using tab 
> without breaking code that doesn't.

But why should I have to do all that. When I write other code I just
don't have to bother and it is all indented as desired too.

>> Then if you are working on different machines, the settings of your
>> editor may not always be the same so that you have tabs on one machine
>> and spaces on an other, which causes problem when you move the code.
>>
> that is fixed by setting your environment consistantly but step 2 above 
> will fix it if you forget.

Again why should I have to bother. Why does python force me to go
through all this trouble when other languages allow themselves to
be happily edited without all this.

>> Also when you have an xterm, selecting a tab and pasting it into another
>> it will turn the tab into spaces.
> 
> Read pep 11 & always use 4 spaces for indentation not tab.

I'll decide how to layout my code.

>> All these things usually can be ignored, they typically only show up
>> when you print something and things aren't aligned as you expect but
>> with python you are forced to correct those things immediately, forcing
>> you to focus on white space layout issues instead of on the logic of the
>> code.
>>
>>> Also, the parser should tell you if you mix tabs and spaces, so that
>>> won't trip anything either.
>>
>> Maybe you mean something different than I understand but a program
>> throwing a syntax error because there is a tab instead of a number of
>> spaces or vice versa, is something I would understand as tripping.
> 
> no more than failing to close a brace in a C like language
> indentation is the syntax of python you will grow to love it, like most 
> people I found it distracting at first even though i tended to indent 
> other code (inconsistently)to make it readable.

I didn't like it at first, accustomed to it a bit and then disliked it
again. So no I don't think I will grow to love it. Python is a tool,
not a religion, so I can live with it if the tool I use has some
featurese I dislike about it. As long as I evaluate the usefulness of
the tool as positive I can live with the peeves.

What is more annoying are the people with some kind of need to reason
your peeves away, as if it is sacriledge daring to dislike something
about the language.

-- 
Antoon Pardon