Ron Parker <ron### [at] povrayorg> wrote in message
news:slr### [at] fwicom...
> On 8 Feb 2001 09:26:41 -0500, Geoff Wedig wrote:
> >In other words, the language enforces something you have to go to outside
> >tools for in other languages?  And this is a bad thing?
>
> That's not what I said.  What I said is, you can fix broken indentation in
> other languages, because there are other cues as to how it should have
been
> done.  In Python, when (not if) the indentation gets broken, the program
stops
> working, and you might not even notice.  Yes, that is a bad thing.

I'm reminded of the old schtick:

Patient:  Doctor, it hurts when I do this.
Doctor:   Don't do that.

Yes, a lame or maladjusted word processor might break code.   Just as that
infernal LF-CR or CR-LF ordering which regularly rears its little ugly head
in programming text widgets. But you will SURELY notice, eventually, and
take the necessary steps to insure that your tools behave as needed.

After all, code text editors can be syntax-smart, color-coding keywords and
comments, enforcing close-parens and the like.  Newlines, blank lines and
indents can be rendered just as significant-- and eventually, with a little
practice, become that way in the eye of the prgrammer (or, more importantly,
the MAINTAINER).

I am 100% FOR syntactically requiring white space and visual blocking
structure- perhaps because I have been doing this voluntarily for over 20
years.  I assure you, the practice leads to the most easily modifiable and
maintainable code you will encounter anywhere.

Post a reply to this message