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

[Alister]

On Wed, 30 Oct 2013 15:56:32 +0100, Antoon Pardon wrote:

> 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.

I guess your experience & mine differ, that is personal taste
I am certainly not trying to "reason your peeves away" just presenting an 
alternate view.

Just for fun I knocked up a quick function to parse a poorly writen 
program as described by the OP (with end as a block terminator) and came 
up with the following

def fixfile(i,o):
    infile=open(i,'r')
    outfile=open(o,'w')
    indent=0
    for line in infile:
        text=line.strip()
        if text[-3:]=='end':
            indent=indent -1
            continue    
        outfile.write("%s%s\r\n"%(" "*(indent*4),text))
        if text[-1]==":":
            indent=indent+1

obviously this is just proof of concept with no error checking vbut it 
did convert this:-

def function():
print "this should be indented but isnt"
	print "indented with tab"
       print "too many spaces"
    for x in range(10):
print "this should be indented twice!"
end
print "should be indented once"
end
        print "this should not be indented at all!"


into this:-

def function():
    print "this should be indented but isnt"
    print "indented with tab"
    print "too many spaces"
    for x in range(10):
        print "this should be indented twice!"
    print "should be indented once"
print "this should not be indented at all!"


-- 
If you're right 90% of the time, why quibble about the remaining 3%?