>1. Indentation as flow control was a bad idea. >2. People are subconsciously aware of this. >3. There is a HUGE degree of emotional investment in defending it. > >The responses I have seen on this issue are highly emotional, full of insults, >full of blame-throwing, and utterly contrary to the basic engineering spirit >I usually see in programming communities. In other languages, and even in >Python on any issue but this one, I regularly see people acknowledge >shortcomings and explain either why they think the tradeoffs are good, or why >they are willing to put up with it anyway. > >The characteristic vehemence and hostility this issue produces are the surest >sign of people who have a desperate need not to acknowledge the elephant in >the room.
What exactly is the downside to indentation as flow control? I am a fairly new programmer to Python, but the more I use it, the more I think it has the Right idea (for me at least). I find braces in Java/c[#,++] to be less than helpful in comparison to how people rave over. It allows for free form code sure, but half the time I was using indentation to figure out where conditional branching/loops started and stopped anyway! I will admit it was super useful in helping Eclipse to reformat with a more "readable" indentation. The only difference is that now it forces me to make more readable code instead of allowing me the freedom to make hard to read code. I suppose as an American I should be insulted at the lack of freedom. Hell, I own Apple products; I must be getting indoctrinated into a lack of freedom. :-P I am not being vehement or hostile. At least I am attempting to be neither. I do not really feel emotionally invested in either because honestly, I will do whatever I have to for what I am trying to get done. If that requires me coding while only wearing hot pink or using braces I will do it. I am far more concerned with ease of coding, ability to do what I want, and occasionally (fairly rarely) if the running code will be "fast enough". I am not sure why people are so stuck on braces. I figured other people would be like me and tired of having to do things like figuring out where I missed an end brace. Ramit Ramit Prasad | JPMorgan Chase Investment Bank | Currencies Technology 712 Main Street | Houston, TX 77002 work phone: 713 - 216 - 5423 This email is confidential and subject to important disclaimers and conditions including on offers for the purchase or sale of securities, accuracy and completeness of information, viruses, confidentiality, legal privilege, and legal entity disclaimers, available at http://www.jpmorgan.com/pages/disclosures/email. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
