Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Teemu Likonen
* 2011-07-18T10:54:40+10:00 * Steven D'Aprano wrote:

 Back in 2007, a n00b calling himself TheFlyingDutchman who I am
 *reasonably* sure was Rick decided to fork Python:

 http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2007-September/1127123.html

I don't know if they are the same person but quite recently
TheFlyingDutchman tried to understand symbols, variables' scope,
bindings as well as function and variable namespaces in Common Lisp. It
resulted in a long thread, some of it was quite interesting.

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/browse_frm/thread/36000a1f37ebb052/5683597dd587fa87
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Gregory Ewing

Steven D'Aprano wrote:


Why 78? Because it's one less than 79, as mandated by PEP 8, and two less
than 80, the hoary old standard.


There's another possible reason for the number 78, although
hopefully it doesn't still apply today.

There's an application I work with that stores free text
in database records of 78 chars each. I suspect it's
because early versions go back to the MS-DOS era, when
it was common to make windows out of box-drawing characters.
80 columns minus two border chars equals 78!

--
Greg
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread gene heskett
On Sunday, July 17, 2011 08:24:12 PM Dotan Cohen did opine:

 On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 17:29, gene heskett ghesk...@wdtv.com wrote:
  I'm still looking for the perfect programming font. Suggestions
  welcomed.
  
  When you find it Dotan, let me know, I've been looking since the later
  '70's.
 
 Hey there Gene! Are you not on every mailing list on the internet old
 man?!?

Nope, I miss quite a few in fact.  Old? I might be looking at 77 yo in a 
couple months, and a few things don't work anymore because I'm too sweet 
(type 2 diabetic), but I can occasionally claim to be a JOAT in a serious 
tone of voice.  Hell Dotan, I even know how vacuum tubes work, including 
some of the exotic ones, like klystrons.  I had to wait till they had 
invented transistors before I could use my first one, 10 years after I had 
decided I wanted to be an electronics whiz in about '39 cuz my uncle kept 
himself in beer money fixing radios.

 I have also come to the conclusion that the perfect woman, the perfect
 physics theory, and the perfect programming font are all illusions
 that men will stride their entire lives in search for but will never
 find.

ROTFLMAO!  And right you are.  It took me several decades (and 3 women I'll 
explain someday) to reach that conclusion.

Cheers, gene
-- 
There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order.
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
The person who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Tim Chase

On 07/17/2011 08:01 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:

Roy Smith wrote:

We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my
mind that we're still churning out people with 80 column
minds.  I'm willing to entertain arguments about readability
of long lines, but the idea that there's something magic
about 80 columns is hogwash.


I agree! Which is why I set my line width to 78 columns.


Bah, when I started programming
on the Apple ][+, we had no
lower-case and a 40-column limit
on the TV display.
But you try and tell the young
people today that...
and they won't believe ya'.

-tkc

(expecting somebody to come back with a bit more retro-computing 
Four Yorkshiremen bit...spinning 360k 5.25 floppy drives? We 
should be so lucky. I had to hand jump 2000-amp bits with only my 
tongue, for a CPU architecture invented by Navajo code-talkers...)

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread python
 Bah, when I started programming
 on the Apple ][+, we had no
 lower-case and a 40-column limit
 on the TV display.

Keyboards??? That was a luxery!
We had mechanical switches that one
had to physically push and pull to
enter commands.

And a 40 column display???
Unheard of! We were happy with
several miniature flashlight bulbs!

But you try and tell the young
people today that...
and they won't believe ya'.

Fond memories!

Malcolm

Ref:

http://totallytrygve.com/computer.php?item=188picture=0
http://www.logikus.info/english.htm
http://oldcomputermuseum.com/logix_kosmos.html
http://www.classiccmp.org/pipermail/cctech/2007-October/086682.html
http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/accession/102621921
http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/ (scanned manual)

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Duncan Booth
Tim Chase python.l...@tim.thechases.com wrote:

 On 07/17/2011 08:01 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
 Roy Smith wrote:
 We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my
 mind that we're still churning out people with 80 column
 minds.  I'm willing to entertain arguments about readability
 of long lines, but the idea that there's something magic
 about 80 columns is hogwash.

 I agree! Which is why I set my line width to 78 columns.
 
 Bah, when I started programming
 on the Apple ][+, we had no
 lower-case and a 40-column limit
 on the TV display.
 But you try and tell the young
 people today that...
 and they won't believe ya'.

Acorn System One: 9 character 7 segment led display and 25 key keypad, 1Kb  
RAM, 512 bytes ROM.

-- 
Duncan Booth http://kupuguy.blogspot.com
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Steven D'Aprano
Tim Chase wrote:

 On 07/17/2011 08:01 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
 Roy Smith wrote:
 We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my
 mind that we're still churning out people with 80 column
 minds.  I'm willing to entertain arguments about readability
 of long lines, but the idea that there's something magic
 about 80 columns is hogwash.

 I agree! Which is why I set my line width to 78 columns.
 
 Bah, when I started programming
 on the Apple ][+, we had no
 lower-case and a 40-column limit
 on the TV display.
 But you try and tell the young
 people today that...
 and they won't believe ya'.

40 columns? Luxury! My first computer was a Hewlett Packard 28S handheld
programmable calculator, with 22 columns[1] and 32 entire kilobytes of
memory!

(I don't include my previous programmable calculator, a Casio, or was it a
Canon, as the programming language included wasn't Turing Complete.)



[1] I think it was 22 columns -- that's what my HP 48GX has, and I'm sure
the 28S screen was no larger.

-- 
Steven

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread gene heskett
On Monday, July 18, 2011 09:32:19 AM Tim Chase did opine:

 On 07/17/2011 08:01 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
  Roy Smith wrote:
  We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my
  mind that we're still churning out people with 80 column
  minds.  I'm willing to entertain arguments about readability
  of long lines, but the idea that there's something magic
  about 80 columns is hogwash.
  
  I agree! Which is why I set my line width to 78 columns.
 
 Bah, when I started programming
 on the Apple ][+, we had no
 lower-case and a 40-column limit
 on the TV display.
 But you try and tell the young
 people today that...
 and they won't believe ya'.
 
 -tkc
 
 (expecting somebody to come back with a bit more retro-computing
 Four Yorkshiremen bit...spinning 360k 5.25 floppy drives? We
 should be so lucky. I had to hand jump 2000-amp bits with only my
 tongue, for a CPU architecture invented by Navajo code-talkers...)

No, but my first computer was an RCA Cosmac Super Elf, with a 6 digit led 
display.  I added another 4k of static ram ($400 for the s100 board kit, 
and about $100 for the S-100 4 slot backplane, and about $125 for a cash 
register style cabinet that I hid the rest of the hardware, including a 6 
volt gell cell for backup battery in)  This had an RCA 1802 CPU which had a 
very interesting architecture.

Writing, in machine code entered through its monitor, a program that drove 
the rest of the hardware and connected to the remote controls of the U-
Matic tape machines of the day, including the display hardware I built from 
scratch with mostly TTL parts, it was replacing the most labor intensive 
step in preparing a commercial for use with an Automatic station break 
machine by applying a new frame accurate academy leader and the tones to 
control it directly to the finished commercial tape.  That automated a very 
timing critical step, and removed a dub cycle from commercial production at 
KRCR in 1979, and was still in use in 1994 the last time I checked.  How 
many of our code projects can make that claim?

I still have a paper copy of the code in a bag on the top shelf.

Interesting sidelight here.  In 1980, Microtime brought a much more 
primative device to do that to the NAB show, which I stopped and looked at, 
and when I could control my laughing, said I had already done that, 
functionally far better than this attempt.  Since they are as lawyer top 
loaded as Apple, I guess they assumed I had also copyrighted and patented 
it, so it was gone the next day  they wouldn't even admit they had had it 
the day before.

In 1987 I made a better version of the EDISK that Grass Valley sold as an 
accessory for the 300 series video production switchers, for $20,000.  
Theirs had a 2 digit display for file names  ran at 1200 baud.
Mine had a whopping 32 column display and english filenames and ran at 4800 
baud, running on a TRS-80 Color Computer, I had $245 in the hardware.  It 
was still in use when I retired in 2002, but when that forced a replacement 
of the 300 because of custom parts availability, the new CE gave me back 
the old machine.  I still have it, and several more of them.  The 6809 was 
not the crippled, drain bamaged processor the 6502 was.

OS-9, the color computers multiuser/multitasking OS, has now grown to also 
execute on the hitachi 6309 cpu chip, and is about 2x faster now than then, 
and we now call it Nitros9.  That is essentially todays linux, running on 
an 8 bit bus, and was my teacher, causing me to only have one legal winderz 
install in the house ever as it was on the laptop (XP) I bought quite a few 
years back now.  Long since history, that machine has had linux on it for 
about 6 years now.

FWIW, I met one of the code talkers when I was the CE at KIVA-TV in the 
late 70's.  That was another example of how we have screwed the First 
Americans' and I had better not get started.

Cheers, gene
-- 
There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order.
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Beneath this stone lies Murphy,
They buried him today,
He lived the life of Riley,
While Riley was away.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Anssi Saari
Thorsten Kampe thors...@thorstenkampe.de writes:

 The perfect programming font is just the one that looks so good that 
 you would also use it for writing email. Dejavu Sans Mono is pretty 
 good. Consolas looks also looks good but it is Windows only.

How is Consolas Windows only? Not that I'd put it in my Windows-free
systems, but I don't see why you couldn't? Everything uses TrueType
fonts now.

I use a font called Dina on this laptop in Emacs. Not pretty but very
readable, has a slashed zero and the wide characters are clearly
separated, so something like www looks like three ws, not a block of
triangle wave.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Thorsten Kampe
* Anssi Saari (Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:28:49 +0300)
 
 Thorsten Kampe thors...@thorstenkampe.de writes:
 
  The perfect programming font is just the one that looks so good that 
  you would also use it for writing email. Dejavu Sans Mono is pretty 
  good. Consolas looks also looks good but it is Windows only.
 
 How is Consolas Windows only? Not that I'd put it in my Windows-free
 systems, but I don't see why you couldn't?

Consolas ships with all versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, 
including Home Basic. If you’re using Visual Studio 2005, you can 
download Consolas from Microsoft. If not, you still may be able to use 
the font, though your mileage may vary. I was able to install it on a 
Windows XP SP1 machine that doesn’t have any version of Visual Studio. 
This PC does have the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK which creates various 
“Microsoft Visual Studio” folders under “Program Files”. These may cause 
the Consolas installer to think I do have VS 2005. I got no error 
messages, and the font was instantly available in all applications.

Another way to get Consolas is to download and install the free 
PowerPoint Viewer 2007 from Microsoft. This works on any computer with 
Windows 2000 SP4 or Windows XP SP1 or later. In addition to the 
PowerPoint Viewer 2007 itself, the installer will install the following 
fonts: Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Consolas, Constantia and Corbel. Only 
the Consolas font is monospaced. All these fonts ship with Windows Vista 
and Windows 7.

http://www.editpadpro.com/fonts.html
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread MRAB

On 18/07/2011 14:52, Duncan Booth wrote:

Tim Chasepython.l...@tim.thechases.com  wrote:


On 07/17/2011 08:01 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:

Roy Smith wrote:

We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my
mind that we're still churning out people with 80 column
minds.  I'm willing to entertain arguments about readability
of long lines, but the idea that there's something magic
about 80 columns is hogwash.


I agree! Which is why I set my line width to 78 columns.


Bah, when I started programming
on the Apple ][+, we had no
lower-case and a 40-column limit
on the TV display.
But you try and tell the young
people today that...
and they won't believe ya'.


Acorn System One: 9 character 7 segment led display and 25 key keypad, 1Kb
RAM, 512 bytes ROM.


1KB RAM? Wow!

Science of Cambridge Mk14, with extra RAM and I/O chip, total of 640
bytes (some reserved for monitor program).

Main RAM at 0xF00..0xFFF, extra RAM at 0xB00..0xBFF, I/O RAM somewhere
else...
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
Gregory Ewing wrote:

 Anders J. Munch wrote:
   Cameron Simpson wrote:
   Personally, I like to use the tab _key_ as an input device, but to
   have my editor write real spaces to the file in consequence.
 Just like in the old days:)
 
 Most editors can be configured to do that.

True.
 
 Where they fall down, in my experience, is that having inserted
 those spaces, if you want to delete them you typically have to
 backspace over them one at a time.

Now that's a BAD source code editor!  Try one running on the Eclipse 
platform, like PyDev (single plugin or in Aptana, also as Eclipse plugin).
But, even vim(1) has auto-indent *and* `', so …

 I don't enjoy that experience, which is why I have BBEdit Lite
 set up to use tab-only indentation. If I'm feeling conscientious,
 I convert to spaces before sharing the code with others. But tabs
 work better for me given the tools I use and the way I like to
 work.

YMMV, of course.

-- 
PointedEars

Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail. / Please do not Cc: me.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
Anssi Saari wrote:

 Thorsten Kampe thors...@thorstenkampe.de writes:
 The perfect programming font is just the one that looks so good that
 you would also use it for writing email. Dejavu Sans Mono is pretty
 good. Consolas looks also looks good but it is Windows only.
 
 How is Consolas Windows only? Not that I'd put it in my Windows-free
 systems, but I don't see why you couldn't?

Consolas is _not_ free software, hence Inconsolata which is.
Windows-only is too strong a classification for Consolas, though.

 Everything uses TrueType fonts now.

Rather OpenType, but that is beside the point.

-- 
PointedEars

Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail. / Please do not Cc: me.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Dave Angel

On 01/-10/-28163 02:59 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:

Tim Chase wrote:


On 07/17/2011 08:01 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:

Roy Smith wrote:

We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my
mind that we're still churning out people with 80 column
minds.  I'm willing to entertain arguments about readability
of long lines, but the idea that there's something magic
about 80 columns is hogwash.

I agree! Which is why I set my line width to 78 columns.

Bah, when I started programming
on the Apple ][+, we had no
lower-case and a 40-column limit
on the TV display.
But you try and tell the young
people today that...
and they won't believe ya'.

40 columns? Luxury! My first computer was a Hewlett Packard 28S handheld
programmable calculator, with 22 columns[1] and 32 entire kilobytes of
memory!

(I don't include my previous programmable calculator, a Casio, or was it a
Canon, as the programming language included wasn't Turing Complete.)



[1] I think it was 22 columns -- that's what my HP 48GX has, and I'm sure
the 28S screen was no larger.

My first programmable calculator had 1.5k of RAM, display was 13 digits 
wide, and it took an optional 2k of PROM via a plugin socket on top.  I 
wrote a commercially sold navigation program for that calculator.  The 
program was used on ships in 1974 and later.  Later I squeezed the code 
a bit and made room for a dead reckoning program and great circle 
calculator.


I didn't write a cross assembler for it till after this project was 
finished.  That assembler ran on a machine with 64 column display.


DaveA

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Anders J. Munch

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:
 I am getting the idea here that you mean the right thing, but that you
 explain it wrong.

Feel free to write the much longer essay that explains it all unambiguously, I'm 
not going to.


regards, Anders


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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 02:55, Andrew Berg  I think the reason the
idea isn't dead is because of the emergence of
 new devices with small displays (tablets/smartphones/etc.) and their
 increasing popularity. When writing code that is meant to be run on
 desktops or servers, the 80-column limit is mostly irrelevant, but
 Python running on these small devices, especially with Python code being
 interpreted rather than compiled, it's convenient to edit code on those
 platforms, where there is a significant column limit.


Let me see if I understand: because there exists a possibility that
someone might want (not need) to edit code on a telephone to make a
quick edit to code being interpreted on that machine, _all_ Python
code should limit itself to a line width that may or may not wrap on a
telephone screen?

Is that the argument in favor of an 80-character line width?

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.18 01:51 PM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
 Let me see if I understand: because there exists a possibility that 
 someone might want (not need) to edit code on a telephone to make a 
 quick edit to code being interpreted on that machine, _all_ Python 
 code should limit itself to a line width that may or may not wrap on
 a telephone screen?
 
 Is that the argument in favor of an 80-character line width?
I doubt that's /the/ argument. I speculated that it's one of the reasons
that a column limit still has relevance. I did not say that I thought
the argument had merit; I make no judgment either way. Also, I'm sure
more than quick edits are done on these phones. Depending on the focus
of the project, it may be best to do most, if not all testing on that
device.

Personally, I think that 80 is pretty arbitrary now, and not the best
limit. I'm more comfortable with 120-130 myself. In any case, Python
won't complain about how many characters are on a line, and that's the
way it should be.

- -- 
CPython 3.2.1 | Windows NT 6.1.7601.17592 | Thunderbird 5.0
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Chris Angelico
On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 5:06 AM, Andrew Berg bahamutzero8...@gmail.com wrote:
 Personally, I think that 80 is pretty arbitrary now, and not the best
 limit. I'm more comfortable with 120-130 myself. In any case, Python
 won't complain about how many characters are on a line, and that's the
 way it should be.


It's a question of policy, which is in the purview of the maintainer
of the codebase. But since Python itself has a lot of Python code, the
policy applied to its standard library is going to be looked at by
everyone as having special status.

ChrisA
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Roy Smith
In article Xns9F2695C6AAA73duncanbooth@127.0.0.1,
 Duncan Booth duncan.booth@invalid.invalid wrote:

 Tim Chase python.l...@tim.thechases.com wrote:
 
  On 07/17/2011 08:01 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
  Roy Smith wrote:
  We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my
  mind that we're still churning out people with 80 column
  minds.  I'm willing to entertain arguments about readability
  of long lines, but the idea that there's something magic
  about 80 columns is hogwash.
 
  I agree! Which is why I set my line width to 78 columns.
  
  Bah, when I started programming
  on the Apple ][+, we had no
  lower-case and a 40-column limit
  on the TV display.
  But you try and tell the young
  people today that...
  and they won't believe ya'.
 
 Acorn System One: 9 character 7 segment led display and 25 key keypad, 1Kb  
 RAM, 512 bytes ROM.

HP-9810.  http://www.hpmuseum.org/98xx/9810n3qs.jpg.

BTW, if anybody has one of these in working condition that they want to 
get rid of, let me know.  I'd love to play with one again.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-18 Thread Tim Roberts
Andrew Berg bahamutzero8...@gmail.com wrote:

 I'm not saying it's wise

Why not?

It just makes it more difficult to follow the pattern when you add new
code.  If you have an editor mnaging that for you, then you might as well
have the editor go all tabs or all spaces to avoid trouble.

Vi and friends with ts=8 and sw=4 will use 4 spaces, then tab, then tab
plus 4 spaces, then two tabs, etc.  That's recognizable, but I still
convert such a file to all spaces when I find one.
-- 
Tim Roberts, t...@probo.com
Providenza  Boekelheide, Inc.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.16 06:06 PM, Tim Roberts wrote:
 That's not true.  Python allows tabs and spaces to be used in the
 same source file, and even in the same source line.
You're right. TabError is only raised if the initial indentation is
inconsistent.
Not legal:
def spam():
tabprint('Wonderful spam!\n')
4 spacesprint('Bloody Vikings!')

Legal:
def eggs():
tabprint(
tabtab'Blech!\n',some spaces to align'Whaddya mean, blech?\n',
tabtab'I don\'t like spam!\n',spaces to align'...'
tabtab)

 I'm not saying it's wise
Why not?

- -- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Ian Kelly
On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 9:09 PM, Steven D'Aprano
steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info wrote:
 Personally, I like to use the tab _key_ as an input device, but to have
 my editor write real spaces to the file in consequence. With pure
 spaces, the text is laid out reliably for us both. And so I have my
 editor set to that behaviour.

 I have reluctantly come to do the same thing. There is a plethora of broken
 tools out there that don't handle tabs well, and consequently even though
 tabs for indentation are objectively better, I use spaces because it is
 less worse than the alternative.

This.  I used to think that tabs were better, for pretty much the
reasons Rick outlined, but I've had enough problems with editors
munging my tabs that I eventually found it simpler in practice to just
go with the flow and use spaces.

Of course, there is also another major problem with tabs that I have
not seen pointed out yet, which is that it's not possible to strictly
adhere to 80-column lines with tabs.  I can write my code to 80
columns using 4-space tabs, but if somebody later tries to edit the
file using 8-space tabs, their lines will be too long.  Rick's answer
to this might be to just mandate that everybody uses 4-space tabs, but
then this would pretty much defeat the purpose of using tabs in the
first place.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thorsten Kampe
* rantingrick (Sat, 16 Jul 2011 09:51:02 -0700 (PDT))
 3) Tabs create freedom in the form of user controlled indention.
 
 Indention width should be a choice of the reader NOT the author. We
 should never code in indention width; but that is EXACTLY what we
 are doing with spaces! No, the reader should be able to choose the
 indention width without ANY formatting required or without any
 collateral damage to the source code. Tabs offer freedom, spaces offer
 oppression.

Why are you so obsessed with indentation length? Indentation length is 
just /one/ of the formatting choices that the author makes for the 
reader - and probably the /least/ significant one.

There is for instance maximum line length, the number of empty lines, 
the author's method of alignment, spaces between the equals sign and so 
on. These are all much more dominant in the source code and none of 
this is left for the reader's disposition.

Compare for instance

variable= 11
anothervariable = 22

def whatever (prettylong = 1,
  alsoprettylong = 22,
  anotherone = 33):
pass

to

variable=11
anothervariable=22
def whatever (prettylong=1, alsoprettylong=22, anotherone=33):
pass

Thorsten
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Ian Kelly
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 1:29 AM, Andrew Berg bahamutzero8...@gmail.com wrote:
 You're right. TabError is only raised if the initial indentation is
 inconsistent.
 Not legal:
 def spam():
 tabprint('Wonderful spam!\n')
 4 spacesprint('Bloody Vikings!')

 Legal:
 def eggs():
 tabprint(
 tabtab'Blech!\n',some spaces to align'Whaddya mean, blech?\n',
 tabtab'I don\'t like spam!\n',spaces to align'...'
 tabtab)

Even this is legal:

def eggs()
tabif spam:
tabspacesprint(Spam and eggs)
tabelse:
tabtabprint(Just eggs)

It's only when you're inconsistent about the added indent of a single
block that Python will complain.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.17 02:32 AM, Ian Kelly wrote:
 Of course, there is also another major problem with tabs that I have 
 not seen pointed out yet, which is that it's not possible to
 strictly adhere to 80-column lines with tabs.  I can write my code to
 80 columns using 4-space tabs, but if somebody later tries to edit
 the file using 8-space tabs, their lines will be too long.
Setting an editor to read a tab as 8 spaces is just plain silly if your
display is limited to 80 characters/line. Inserting 8 spaces as one
indent is also a bit silly, but if you're going to do it, it's your
responsibility to make sure the line is still less than 80 characters.

- -- 
CPython 3.2.1 | Windows NT 6.1.7601.17592 | Thunderbird 5.0
PGP/GPG Public Key ID: 0xF88E034060A78FCB
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thorsten Kampe
* Andrew Berg (Sat, 16 Jul 2011 19:29:30 -0500)
 Of everything I've read on tabs vs. spaces, this is what makes the
 most sense to me:
 http://www.iovene.com/61/

Interesting one, especially the - from the coder's point of view - 
artificial distinction between indentation and alignment.

What is the difference between indentation and alignment? Well, 
indentation works with tabs, alignment not.

The author's conclusion simply just use what ever you want for 
indenting, but use spaces for aligning leaves only two choices for 
Python programmers: use spaces for indenting or don't align.

Thorsten
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 19:51, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
 --
  Evidence: Tabs ARE superior!
 --

I am also a recent spaces-to-tabs convert. One of the reasons is that
I've discovered that programing in a non-fixed width font is a real
pleasure, but the spaces are too narrow. Tabs alleviate that.

I'm still looking for the perfect programming font. Suggestions welcomed.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.17 03:15 AM, Dotan Cohen wrote:
 programing in a non-fixed width font is a real pleasure
If you're masochistic, maybe. Do you find fixed-width fonts ugly? I
really would like to know why anyone would use a non-fixed-width font
for programming.
 I'm still looking for the perfect programming font. Suggestions
 welcomed.
I use Courier New.

- -- 
CPython 3.2.1 | Windows NT 6.1.7601.17592 | Thunderbird 5.0
PGP/GPG Public Key ID: 0xF88E034060A78FCB
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.17 02:56 AM, Thorsten Kampe wrote:
 What is the difference between indentation and alignment? Well, 
 indentation works with tabs, alignment not.
The use of spaces for indentation is as much of a hack as the use of
tabs for alignment is. Not everyone agrees on how many spaces an indent
should be (whether an indent is a tab or a space-tab), which is a good
reason to use tabs. In fact, spaces have absolutely /no/ advantage over
tabs when it comes to pure indentation. It may be possible to configure
an editor to compensate using space-tabs (and perhaps even detect the
length of indents, changing the number of spaces to conform to what the
reader thinks is the right number of spaces per indent), but this is all
to make a pretty delicate environment just to be even with tabs.
On the flip side, tabs can't maintain alignment because again, not
everyone agrees on how big a tab should be. This is a good reason to use
spaces. Using tabs for indentation and spaces for alignment solves the
problem. I really can't think of any problems this would cause that
aren't superficial.
 The author's conclusion simply just use what ever you want for 
 indenting, but use spaces for aligning leaves only two choices for 
 Python programmers: use spaces for indenting or don't align.
It's possible to indent with tabs and align with spaces in Python; see
my earlier post.

- -- 
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PGP/GPG Public Key ID: 0xF88E034060A78FCB
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thorsten Kampe
* Andrew Berg (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 03:36:31 -0500)
 Not everyone agrees on how many spaces an indent should be (whether an
 indent is a tab or a space-tab), which is a good reason to use tabs.

Not everyone who doesn't agree on indent size actually cares enough 
about indent size - especially in someone else's code. I'd say it's 
probably rather the majority making this whole debate artificial.

I like my indent four spaces. If you like eight, wonderful, I don't 
care, it's your code. If I want to use your code in my own, I completely 
have to reformat your code anyway. And if we work on a project together, 
we have to agree on formatting anyway, the indent size being the least 
important one.

This whole debate is artificial.

 Using tabs for indentation and spaces for alignment solves the
 problem. I really can't think of any problems this would cause that
 aren't superficial.

Sorry, you didn't understand my point. My point is: the distinction 
between indentation and alignment is superficial. Indentation /is/ 
exactly the same as alignment.

Thorsten
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.17 04:33 AM, Thorsten Kampe wrote:
 Not everyone who doesn't agree on indent size actually cares enough 
 about indent size - especially in someone else's code. I'd say it's 
 probably rather the majority making this whole debate artificial.
It's more of a debate on what's good practice when sharing with others
(especially when many developers work together and there are no strict
guidelines enforced, which is not uncommon with large open-source
projects). Obviously, one can completely disregard all guidelines for
writing readable and maintainable code, and no one will care if no one
sees it.

 And if we work on a project together, we have to agree on formatting
 anyway, the indent size being the least important one.
How is indent size unimportant with regard to formatting? Or are you
talking about design as part of formatting?

 This whole debate is artificial.
Only if no one cares about your code. Sometimes that's more or less the
case, and sometimes it isn't. It's also worth mentioning that some
people have an almost religious fervor when it comes to spaces and tabs.
That can make the issue much more relevant than other things that are
more important. Many editors can work around either style (at least in
some sense), so in many circumstances, it is indeed artificial, but
there are other circumstances where it matters a lot (often more than it
should).

 Sorry, you didn't understand my point. My point is: the distinction 
 between indentation and alignment is superficial. Indentation /is/ 
 exactly the same as alignment.
I still don't understand. Whitespace to the left of an assignment to
signify an indent and whitespace around operators to align values (in a
multi-line assignment) are not the same.

- -- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thorsten Kampe
* Andrew Berg (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 05:02:22 -0500)
  And if we work on a project together, we have to agree on formatting
  anyway, the indent size being the least important one.
 How is indent size unimportant with regard to formatting?

Take some code or yours and format it with three and with six spaces. 
Then you will see how unimportant it is: it looks virtually the same.

Or as I've written in another posting:
There is for instance maximum line length, the number of empty lines, 
the author's method of alignment, spaces between the equals sign and so 
on. These are all much more dominant in the source code and none of 
this is left for the reader's disposition.

Compare for instance

variable= 11
anothervariable = 22

def whatever (prettylong = 1,
  alsoprettylong = 22,
  anotherone = 33):
pass

to

variable=11
anothervariable=22
def whatever (prettylong=1, alsoprettylong=22, anotherone=33):
pass


  This whole debate is artificial.
 Only if no one cares about your code.

Only if you don't care about indent length - which I again state, most 
people (probably) don't.

 It's also worth mentioning that some people have an almost religious
 fervor when it comes to spaces and tabs.

I know. These are people like rantingrick who start artificial threads 
like this with artificial problems like tabs versus spaces to liberate 
the common coder.

  Sorry, you didn't understand my point. My point is: the distinction
  between indentation and alignment is superficial. Indentation /is/
  exactly the same as alignment.

 I still don't understand. Whitespace to the left of an assignment to
 signify an indent and whitespace around operators to align values (in
 a multi-line assignment) are not the same.

When I'm (consistently, of course) indenting code, I'm aligning it. When 
I'm aligning code, I do this by indenting it, see for instance...

firstvariable = 11
variable  = 111

firstvariable = 22
variable =  222

The second = and the 222 is indented.

Or your example:
setup(
name = 'Elucidation',
version  = '0.0.1-WIP',
py_modules   = ['elucidation'],
author   = 'Andrew Berg',
author_email = 'baha...@digital-signal.net',
url  = '',
platforms= 'Windows',
description  = 'Provides a class for storing information on
multimedia files that are to be converted or remuxed and methods to
convert and remux using popular tools.'
)

The keywords are aligned by indenting. In the left of an assignment 
case it makes a difference for the Python compiler, in the alignment 
case it doesn't. In both cases, it makes a difference to the human who 
indents/aligns to group similar things and blocks.

Thorsten
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 11:35, Andrew Berg bahamutzero8...@gmail.com wrote:
 programing in a non-fixed width font is a real pleasure
 If you're masochistic, maybe. Do you find fixed-width fonts ugly?

I don't find that fixed-width fonts are ugly, but variable-width fonts
sure are more of a pleasure. And with code-colouring in any good IDE,
there is no real need to have the dot or other tiny characters jump
out and announce their presence. So long as the indentation lines up
(which it does, with tabs or spaces) then I do not see any problem
with variable-width.

What are the counter-arguments?


 I
 really would like to know why anyone would use a non-fixed-width font
 for programming.

Aesthetics.

 I'm still looking for the perfect programming font. Suggestions
 welcomed.
 I use Courier New.


Have you looked at the Droid fixed-width fonts? Very nice, and easy to
distinguish 0 from o or O.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread rusi
On Jul 17, 4:11 pm, Dotan Cohen dotanco...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 11:35, Andrew Berg bahamutzero8...@gmail.com wrote:
  programing in a non-fixed width font is a real pleasure
  If you're masochistic, maybe. Do you find fixed-width fonts ugly?

 I don't find that fixed-width fonts are ugly, but variable-width fonts
 sure are more of a pleasure. And with code-colouring in any good IDE,
 there is no real need to have the dot or other tiny characters jump
 out and announce their presence. So long as the indentation lines up
 (which it does, with tabs or spaces) then I do not see any problem
 with variable-width.

 What are the counter-arguments?

  I
  really would like to know why anyone would use a non-fixed-width font
  for programming.

 Aesthetics.

Its more (or less depending...) than just aesthetics.  Its about
optimization.
On a fixed width font an 'i' is as wide as an 'm' as a '.'
This means that a fwf is either a unreasonably small or the lines are
too long.

[Note: I use only fwf because all the tools I know/use/tried are
broken for vwf]
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thorsten Kampe
* Dotan Cohen (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:11:40 +0300)
 So long as the indentation lines up (which it does, with tabs or
 spaces) then I do not see any problem with variable-width.

 What are the counter-arguments?

Alignment doesn't line up.

Thorsten
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Anders J. Munch

Steven D'Aprano wrote:
 I can't fathom why 8 position tabs were *ever* the default, let alone why
 they are still the default.

That's because they were not invented as a means for programmers to vary 
indentation.


Originally, tabs were a navigation device: When you press the tab key, you skip 
ahead to the next tab column.  The notion that whitespace characters are 
inserted into the text would have been very alien to someone using text 
processing software anno 1970.  Same thing with space and enter; on typewriters
the space bar doesn't type anything onto the paper, it moves to the next 
column, and that thinking carried over to computers.


The reason the tab stop is a full 8 positions: for faster navigation.  If it 
were 3 positions, it would take forever to skip from the start of line to column 
60.  You'd appreciate that, if you were e.g. writing a fiduciary report with 
some text to the left and two number columns to the right, back in the day 
before spreadsheets and word processor tables.  Skip a column or two too far? 
Adjust by backspacing (another navigation key).


As for why 8 is still the default - well, what else should it be? 2, 3, 4, 5?  I 
for one am thankful that we have so far been spared the flamewar armegeddon of 
all the world's programmers trying to agree on that.


 Cameron Simpson wrote:
 Personally, I like to use the tab _key_ as an input device, but to have
 my editor write real spaces to the file in consequence.

Just like in the old days:)

regards, Anders

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
Thorsten Kampe wrote:

 * Andrew Berg (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 05:02:22 -0500)
 I still don't understand. Whitespace to the left of an assignment to
 signify an indent and whitespace around operators to align values (in
 a multi-line assignment) are not the same.
 
 When I'm (consistently, of course) indenting code, I'm aligning it. When
 I'm aligning code, I do this by indenting it, see for instance...
 
 firstvariable = 11
 variable  = 111
 
 firstvariable = 22
 variable =  222
 
 The second = and the 222 is indented.

You might want to check your English dictionary.  Indenting is commonly 
understood in typography as To begin (a line or lines) at a greater or less 
distance from the margin¹.  In particular, in computer programming it 
usually means that there is, at most, whitespace on the left of the text.²  
In that sense, the above is _not_ indentation (or indenting), as neither 
variable nor variable = consist only of whitespace.  It is only 
aligning.³

HTH

___
¹ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/indenting
² http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indent_style
³ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aligning
-- 
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Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail. / Please do not Cc: me.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
Dotan Cohen wrote:

 On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 19:51, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
 --
 Evidence: Tabs ARE superior!
 --
 
 I am also a recent spaces-to-tabs convert. One of the reasons is that
 I've discovered that programing in a non-fixed width font is a real
 pleasure, but the spaces are too narrow. Tabs alleviate that.

Not using a fixed-width font avoids this problem and others in the first 
place.
 
 I'm still looking for the perfect programming font. Suggestions welcomed.

I can recommend Consolas (Windows) or Inconsolata (elsewhere), which are 
designed for programming and are near perfect in that regard.  However, I 
have decided for Deja Vu Sans Mono for reading and writing Usenet articles 
because it supports more Unicode characters and can be sized appropriately 
for running text.

But, all of them are fixed-width fonts.  I do not understand how you can 
consider using a non-fixed-width font in programming a real pleasure as 
many them show a lot of ambiguities in source code.  Take for example the 
lowercase l (el) vs. the capital I (ai) vs. the | (pipe) character,
or the 0 (zero) vs. the capital O (oh) character in Arial.

-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread TheSaint
Ian Kelly wrote:

 but if somebody later tries to edit the
 file using 8-space tabs

I came across this and I like to put a note on top of the script
to remember to modify it accordingly.


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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread gene heskett
On Sunday, July 17, 2011 10:28:16 AM Dotan Cohen did opine:

 On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 19:51, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
  --
   Evidence: Tabs ARE superior!
  --
 
 I am also a recent spaces-to-tabs convert. One of the reasons is that
 I've discovered that programing in a non-fixed width font is a real
 pleasure, but the spaces are too narrow. Tabs alleviate that.
 
 I'm still looking for the perfect programming font. Suggestions
 welcomed.

When you find it Dotan, let me know, I've been looking since the later 
'70's.

Cheers, gene
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 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thorsten Kampe
* Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:35:15 +0200)
 Thorsten Kampe wrote:
  * Andrew Berg (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 05:02:22 -0500)
  I still don't understand. Whitespace to the left of an assignment
  to signify an indent and whitespace around operators to align
  values (in a multi-line assignment) are not the same.
  
  When I'm (consistently, of course) indenting code, I'm aligning it. When
  I'm aligning code, I do this by indenting it, see for instance...
  
  firstvariable = 11
  variable  = 111
  
  firstvariable = 22
  variable =  222
  
  The second = and the 222 is indented.
 
 You might want to check your English dictionary.  Indenting is commonly 
 understood in typography as To begin (a line or lines) at a greater or less 
 distance from the margin¹.  In particular, in computer programming it 
 usually means that there is, at most, whitespace on the left of the text.²  
 In that sense, the above is _not_ indentation (or indenting), as neither 
 variable nor variable = consist only of whitespace.  It is only 
 aligning.³

*doublesigh* that is actually the point I was trying to make. From a 
programmer's point of view the distinction is artificial because he does 
essentially the same: press the tab key or the indent button to move the 
stuff right from the cursor to the right so it gets aligned with the 
stuff above.

Thorsten
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thorsten Kampe
* gene heskett (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 10:29:03 -0400)
 On Sunday, July 17, 2011 10:28:16 AM Dotan Cohen did opine:
  I'm still looking for the perfect programming font. Suggestions
  welcomed.
 
 When you find it Dotan, let me know, I've been looking since the later
 '70's.

The perfect programming font is just the one that looks so good that 
you would also use it for writing email. Dejavu Sans Mono is pretty 
good. Consolas looks also looks good but it is Windows only.

Thorsten
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread rantingrick
On Jul 17, 2:32 am, Ian Kelly ian.g.ke...@gmail.com wrote:

 This.  I used to think that tabs were better, for pretty much the
 reasons Rick outlined, but I've had enough problems with editors
 munging my tabs that I eventually found it simpler in practice to just
 go with the flow and use spaces.

Solution: STOP USING BROKEN TOOLS!!!

 Of course, there is also another major problem with tabs that I have
 not seen pointed out yet, which is that it's not possible to strictly
 adhere to 80-column lines with tabs.

Of course it is. The litmus test will be four-space-tab-view. If the
code overflows in this view type then the code will fail the 80 char
maximum limit. This argument is ridiculous anyhow. It is up to you how
to view the source. If you view it in 80 width tabs don't start
complaining later when one indention goes off the page. Would you view
the source with 50 point font? Jeez.

  I can write my code to 80
 columns using 4-space tabs, but if somebody later tries to edit the
 file using 8-space tabs, their lines will be too long.

THEIR LINES is the key words. A tab control is a tab control is a (you
guessed it!) a tab control. No matter how small or large your tab
settings are the source only reflects one tab control char per press
of the tab key. Heck, people are already (unwisely) using 8-space-
spaces and i don't hear you making the same argument.

 Rick's answer
 to this might be to just mandate that everybody uses 4-space tabs, but
 then this would pretty much defeat the purpose of using tabs in the
 first place.

We already mandate four space spaces so what is the difference? I'll
tell you, the difference is Freedom and Unity living in perfect
harmony.

Yes, we mandate that all code must meet the 80 line limit in four-
space-tab-view, and if it doesn't, it's not allowed in the stdlib.
Plain and simple.

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Corey Richardson
Excerpts from Thorsten Kampe's message of Sun Jul 17 11:10:57 -0400 2011:
 The perfect programming font is just the one that looks so good that 
 you would also use it for writing email. Dejavu Sans Mono is pretty 
 good. Consolas looks also looks good but it is Windows only.
 

I use inconsolata, but I  hate the look of it un-bold at small sizes, so
I keep it bold all the time. I've started using DejaVu very recently because
of that, it looks better on screen at small sizes (pixelsize=9 in my 
~/.Xdefaults, as opposed to the 12 and bold with inconsolata). Inconsolata
looks great on paper, though. DejaVu Sans Mono isn't the prettiest thing
but it certainly gets the job done.
-- 
Corey Richardson
  Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves
 -- Abraham Lincoln


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread rantingrick
On Jul 17, 2:35 am, Thorsten Kampe thors...@thorstenkampe.de wrote:
 * rantingrick (Sat, 16 Jul 2011 09:51:02 -0700 (PDT))

  3) Tabs create freedom in the form of user controlled indention.

  Indention width should be a choice of the reader NOT the author. We
  should never code in indention width; but that is EXACTLY what we
  are doing with spaces! No, the reader should be able to choose the
  indention width without ANY formatting required or without any
  collateral damage to the source code. Tabs offer freedom, spaces offer
  oppression.

 Why are you so obsessed with indentation length? Indentation length is
 just /one/ of the formatting choices that the author makes for the
 reader - and probably the /least/ significant one.

I am not OBSESSED with it, i am just PERTURBED that we are not using
tabs; since tabs offer freedom to view the source at ANY indentation
level you choose REGARDLESS of what the author thought was
appropriate. It is a wise choice to only allow tabs in a language that
has FORCED indention. This is one way we can actually promote freedom
whist maintaining unity.

 There is for instance maximum line length,

I like to keep lines at 80. Sometimes i go over if the code is not
something you would need to read often. If the code was to go into the
stdlib i would make sure it was 110% style guide compliant.

  the number of empty lines,

I hate  vertical white-space. I follow Python style guide suggestions,
and then some! I hate when people insert spaces into code blocks and
function/method bodies. If you feel a space must be inserted then that
is a good clue you should be using a comment there instead. Vertical
breaks should only happen before and after classes, methods,
functions, groups of GLOBALS, groups of import statements. Think of
func/method bodies as paragraphs and classes as sections of a book.
Two vertical spaces between classes and one vertical space between
func/methods.

 the author's method of alignment, spaces between the equals sign and so
 on.

I believe non-compliant spacing in args should throw an syntax error.
I hate this:

 func( arg1 = 1, arg2 = 3 )

It should be...

 func(arg1=1, arg2=3)

Much easier to read when formatted into logical groups.

  These are all much more dominant in the source code and none of
 this is left for the reader's disposition.

It should be MANDATED. And these @holes who refuse to format their
code in a community standard will suffer the plague of syntax errors.
Who do these people think they are? Do they believe the rules do not
apply to them? I'll tell you who they are, they are F'ING format
criminals.

 Compare for instance

 variable        = 11
 anothervariable = 22

 def whatever (prettylong     = 1,
               alsoprettylong = 22,
               anotherone     = 33):
     pass

 to

 variable=11
 anothervariable=22
 def whatever (prettylong=1, alsoprettylong=22, anotherone=33):
     pass

Both examples show non-compliance to the Python style guide.Except for
this...

--
FUNCTIONS/METHODS
--
def whatever(
prettylong=1,
alsoprettylong=22,
anotherone=33):

OR

def whatever(prettylong=1, alsoprettylong=22,
 anotherone=33):

I think the second is more readable for block openers. Note the
closing bracket and colon on last line!

--
 CONTAINER TYPES
--

d = {
1:1,
2:2,
3:3,
4:4,
}

Note closing bracket on newline; and all alone! For hand stitching
containers you should put the closer on a newline that matches the
opener's indention level.

--
 VARIABLES
--

variable = 11
anothervariable = 22

Stop trying to be an individual in a community. When you write code
for just you then write it any way you like. Go ahead and use that
Joker font and 10 space indention. Go ahead an use foolish spacing and
whatever. However when you are writing code in public or for the
stdlib you should always be Style Guide compliant.

You guys should feel lucky i am not the BDFL, because i would cast
plagues of exceptions on your lazy butts!
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread rantingrick
On Jul 17, 5:42 am, Thorsten Kampe thors...@thorstenkampe.de wrote:

 When I'm (consistently, of course) indenting code, I'm aligning it. When
 I'm aligning code, I do this by indenting it, see for instance...

 firstvariable = 11
 variable      = 111

 firstvariable = 22
 variable =      222

 The second = and the 222 is indented.

 Or your example:
 setup(
     name         = 'Elucidation',
     version      = '0.0.1-WIP',
     py_modules   = ['elucidation'],
     author       = 'Andrew Berg',
     author_email = 'baha...@digital-signal.net',
     url          = '',
     platforms    = 'Windows',
     description  = 'Provides a class for storing information on
 multimedia files that are to be converted or remuxed and methods to
 convert and remux using popular tools.'

Why do you feel the need to layout your code in a GUI-listview
manner. Next you'll want column titles and column sorting... Jeez!
This is what you should have done...

DESC = 
Provides a class for storing information on
multimedia files that are to be converted
or remuxed and methods to convert and remux
using popular tools.


setup(
name='Elucidation',
version='0.0.1-WIP',
py_modules=['elucidation'],
    author='Andrew Berg',
    author_email='baha...@digital-signal.net',
    url='',
    platforms='Windows',
    description=DESC,
)
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Chris Angelico
On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 2:29 AM, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
 You guys should feel lucky i am not the BDFL, because i would cast
 plagues of exceptions on your lazy butts!


BDFL = Benevolent Dictator For Life. Note that first word.

ChrisA
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread rantingrick
On Jul 17, 4:49 am, Anders J. Munch 2...@jmunch.dk wrote:

 Originally, tabs were a navigation device: When you press the tab key, you 
 skip
 ahead to the next tab column.  The notion that whitespace characters are
 inserted into the text would have been very alien to someone using text
 processing software anno 1970.  Same thing with space and enter; on 
 typewriters
 the space bar doesn't type anything onto the paper, it moves to the next
 column, and that thinking carried over to computers.

And how much longer are we going to live in the past? Who cares about
backward compatible tabs. Mandate the four space tab now! Mandate that
Python takes four space and four space only! We shall lead the charge
for universal tab unity in all programming languages.

How long are you going to accept this multiplicity? It's ridiculous.

 The reason the tab stop is a full 8 positions: for faster navigation.  If it
 were 3 positions, it would take forever to skip from the start of line to 
 column
 60.  You'd appreciate that, if you were e.g. writing a fiduciary report with
 some text to the left and two number columns to the right, back in the day
 before spreadsheets and word processor tables.

Just in case you were not aware this the year 2011. Spreadsheets have
been around for a LONG time. Stop living the past.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Chris Angelico
On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 2:53 AM, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
 [a whole lot of guff]

Rick, you need to:

1) Grab the Python source code
2) Make your own version of Python that works the way you want it
3) Call it something different
4) Start your own mailing list.

Put your money - or, in this case, development time - where your big
ranting mouth is. Prove that your ideas are worth something by acting
on them.

Chris Angelico
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread rantingrick
On Jul 17, 12:11 pm, Chris Angelico ros...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 2:53 AM, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
  [a whole lot of guff]

 Rick, you need to:

 1) Grab the Python source code
 2) Make your own version of Python that works the way you want it
 3) Call it something different
 4) Start your own mailing list.

It's funny you mention this because i am creating a specification for
a Python 4000 fork that removes all ambiguities and multiplicity from
the language. Very soon i will be posting the spec for review within
this group. Maybe some of you will come to your senses and start
implementing these important features in CPython. If not, i am not
going to waste my time forever trying to convince idiots that the
world is in fact round.

Python as it stands now will be defunct unless we make some serious
changes starting with formatting. We cannot continue to create code
bases that are so haphazardly written just for the sake of personal
freedom. Since people will not self-police we must create a mandate
that forces compliance to a style guide. Years have passed since the
first program was written. It is high time to set the standards for
formatting.

Such a system of rigorous formatting rules requires much less
interpreter logic. Python will be leaner and meaner. There won't be
any more arguing about how to format code. There will only be one way;
the correct way! Choose to follow it or die of exceptions; your
choice.

I am looking to the future and leaving the past where it belongs.
After i get a format style nailed down i will start culling the other
language specific multiplicities. Then it will be time to look outside
of Python and see what is the future of high level programming
languages.

You can choose to join me or choose to rot of old age in the self-
induced hell of antiquity. The past is bickering over selfish personal
freedoms, the future of is unity.

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Chris Angelico
On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 3:57 AM, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
 It's funny you mention this because i am creating a specification for
 a Python 4000 fork that removes all ambiguities and multiplicity from
 the language. Very soon i will be posting the spec for review within
 this group. Maybe some of you will come to your senses and start
 implementing these important features in CPython. If not, i am not
 going to waste my time forever trying to convince idiots that the
 world is in fact round.

Oh, I totally agree. And mailman is open source software so you can
even host the new Python-4000 mailing list yourself! Gather unto
thyself thy followers, and begin anew the creation of the world.

Chris Angelico
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Tim Chase

4) Tabs remove the need for complicated
indention/detention tools.


On 07/17/2011 10:15 AM, rantingrick wrote:

On Jul 17, 2:32 am, Ian Kellyian.g.ke...@gmail.com  wrote:

This.  I used to think that tabs were better, for pretty
much the reasons Rick outlined, but I've had enough
problems with editors munging my tabs that I eventually
found it simpler in practice to just go with the flow and
use spaces.


Solution: STOP USING BROKEN TOOLS!!!


Unbroken tools that do anything worthwhile are usually 
complicated tools.


Just pointing that out in case you missed the irony...

-tkc





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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thorsten Kampe
* rantingrick (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 10:57:10 -0700 (PDT))
 Choose to follow it or die of exceptions; your choice.

One of the best things I've read for a long time :-).

 The past is bickering over selfish personal freedoms, the future of is
 unity.

And a tab is *exactly* four spaces. Not three. Not five. Not eight. For 
you, for me, and for the rest of the world. Amen!

Thorsten
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Ian Kelly
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 9:15 AM, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
  I can write my code to 80
 columns using 4-space tabs, but if somebody later tries to edit the
 file using 8-space tabs, their lines will be too long.

 THEIR LINES is the key words. A tab control is a tab control is a (you
 guessed it!) a tab control. No matter how small or large your tab
 settings are the source only reflects one tab control char per press
 of the tab key. Heck, people are already (unwisely) using 8-space-
 spaces and i don't hear you making the same argument.

Because the problem does not apply.  If I use 4 spaces, and somebody
else opens my file who uses 8, the code will still be limited to 80
columns.  They will just have to see my ugly 4-space indentation
instead of their preferred 8-space indentation.  You know what?  They
can cope.

 Rick's answer
 to this might be to just mandate that everybody uses 4-space tabs, but
 then this would pretty much defeat the purpose of using tabs in the
 first place.

 We already mandate four space spaces so what is the difference? I'll
 tell you, the difference is Freedom and Unity living in perfect
 harmony.

Let me get this straight.  You want us to use tabs so that individuals
can set their tab width to however many spaces they want, but then you
want everybody to set their tab widths to 4 spaces.  You're
contradicting yourself here.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Ian Kelly
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 10:29 AM, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
 I hate  vertical white-space. I follow Python style guide suggestions,
 and then some! I hate when people insert spaces into code blocks and
 function/method bodies. If you feel a space must be inserted then that
 is a good clue you should be using a comment there instead. Vertical
 breaks should only happen before and after classes, methods,
 functions, groups of GLOBALS, groups of import statements. Think of
 func/method bodies as paragraphs and classes as sections of a book.
 Two vertical spaces between classes and one vertical space between
 func/methods.

You know, there is such a thing as a vertical tab.  If we're going to
take your suggestion of mandating tabs (for greater freedom!), should
we not follow it to its logical conclusion and mandate the usage of
vertical tabs instead of multiple newlines?  Then everybody could
choose for themselves how many lines they want a vertical tab to
represent

 It should be MANDATED. And these @holes who refuse to format their
 code in a community standard will suffer the plague of syntax errors.
 Who do these people think they are? Do they believe the rules do not
 apply to them? I'll tell you who they are, they are F'ING format
 criminals.

I think I get it now.  Your idea of freedom is that anybody can do
whatever they want as long as it's not illegal, and the ruling party
just makes anything it doesn't like illegal.  In other words, a
monarchy.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
Thorsten Kampe wrote:

 * Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:35:15 +0200)
 Thorsten Kampe wrote:
  * Andrew Berg (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 05:02:22 -0500)
  I still don't understand. Whitespace to the left of an assignment
  to signify an indent and whitespace around operators to align
  values (in a multi-line assignment) are not the same.
  
  When I'm (consistently, of course) indenting code, I'm aligning it.
  When I'm aligning code, I do this by indenting it, see for instance...
  
  firstvariable = 11
  variable  = 111
  
  firstvariable = 22
  variable =  222
  
  The second = and the 222 is indented.
 
 You might want to check your English dictionary.  Indenting is commonly
 understood in typography as To begin (a line or lines) at a greater or
 less distance from the margin¹.  In particular, in computer programming
 it usually means that there is, at most, whitespace on the left of the
 text.² In that sense, the above is _not_ indentation (or indenting), as
 neither variable nor variable = consist only of whitespace.  It is
 only aligning.³
 
 *doublesigh* that is actually the point I was trying to make.

Well, you said you would align code *by indenting*, which is either 
nonsense following the not-so-uncommon definition of indenting that I 
presented, or you chose a particularly bad example to make your point
(as it does not feature indentation at all).

 From a programmer's point of view the distinction is artificial because he
 does essentially the same: press the tab key

But he should not, unless he uses the Tab key to insert spaces, because the 
*display width* of the Tab *character* is variable.  *That* is the point!

 or the indent button to move the stuff right from the cursor to the right
 so it gets aligned with the stuff above.

Indent button?

-- 
PointedEars

Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail. / Please do not Cc: me.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 14:51, Thorsten Kampe thors...@thorstenkampe.de wrote:
 * Dotan Cohen (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:11:40 +0300)
 So long as the indentation lines up (which it does, with tabs or
 spaces) then I do not see any problem with variable-width.

 What are the counter-arguments?

 Alignment doesn't line up.


They do with tabs.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread rantingrick
On Jul 17, 1:20 pm, Thorsten Kampe thors...@thorstenkampe.de wrote:

  The past is bickering over selfish personal freedoms, the future of is
  unity.

 And a tab is *exactly* four spaces. Not three. Not five. Not eight. For
 you, for me, and for the rest of the world. Amen!

Not *exactly*.

A tab is just a control char in a string that meant to convey a user
defined space. When a text editor see's a tab in a string it uses the
current user defined tab width and creates the proper space (or
moves the proper distance) in the display. The tab control char
carries no information as to how WIDE a tab must be, no, the editor
makes that choice (based on user input or default).

However a tab can be EQUAL to four spaces, or eight spaces , or even
eight-eight spaces if the user wants it to.

The same is true for font. A string contains chars and the display
font is a decision for the editor to make (based on user input or
default).

We cannot always offer unity and freedom in a programming language.
But there are some exceptions; one of which being tabs.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 15:53, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
pointede...@web.de wrote:
 I am also a recent spaces-to-tabs convert. One of the reasons is that
 I've discovered that programing in a non-fixed width font is a real
 pleasure, but the spaces are too narrow. Tabs alleviate that.

 Not using a fixed-width font avoids this problem and others in the first
 place.

 I'm still looking for the perfect programming font. Suggestions welcomed.

 I can recommend Consolas (Windows) or Inconsolata (elsewhere), which are
 designed for programming and are near perfect in that regard.  However, I
 have decided for Deja Vu Sans Mono for reading and writing Usenet articles
 because it supports more Unicode characters and can be sized appropriately
 for running text.


I have used those three in the past. Terrific fonts each of them,
especially Inconsolata if I remember correctly.


 But, all of them are fixed-width fonts.  I do not understand how you can
 consider using a non-fixed-width font in programming a real pleasure as
 many them show a lot of ambiguities in source code.  Take for example the
 lowercase l (el) vs. the capital I (ai) vs. the | (pipe) character,
 or the 0 (zero) vs. the capital O (oh) character in Arial.


The ambiguity has never been an issue for me. In the unlikely event
that an l (el) is in the place of a pipe, the code won't compile and
I'll get an error on the line in question. Though that has never
actually happened: the IDE is double-checking way before the code gets
to the compiler. Zero vs. O (oh), I've never had this issue either and
even if one key was hit in place of the other (they are close by) then
either the IDE or compiler would catch it, or it would result in a
minor bug in a text string.

It simply isn't an issue.


-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 17:29, gene heskett ghesk...@wdtv.com wrote:
 I'm still looking for the perfect programming font. Suggestions
 welcomed.

 When you find it Dotan, let me know, I've been looking since the later
 '70's.


Hey there Gene! Are you not on every mailing list on the internet old man?!?

I have also come to the conclusion that the perfect woman, the perfect
physics theory, and the perfect programming font are all illusions
that men will stride their entire lives in search for but will never
find.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thorsten Kampe
* Dotan Cohen (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 22:20:15 +0300)
 
 On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 14:51, Thorsten Kampe thors...@thorstenkampe.de 
 wrote:
  * Dotan Cohen (Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:11:40 +0300)
  So long as the indentation lines up (which it does, with tabs or
  spaces) then I do not see any problem with variable-width.
 
  What are the counter-arguments?
 
  Alignment doesn't line up.
 
 
 They do with tabs.

Indentation alignment will (because you're using only spaces). Otherwise 
it doesn't align (it can't), simply because of the variable-width.

For instance (in a variable-width font):

if a == b:
var123= 22
varxyz456 = 333
  ^
aligned   not aligned

Thorsten
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 20:57, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
 Such a system of rigorous formatting rules requires much less
 interpreter logic. Python will be leaner and meaner. There won't be
 any more arguing about how to format code. There will only be one way;
 the correct way! Choose to follow it or die of exceptions; your
 choice.


Do you know that Python 4000 is the only language in the world whose
vocabulary gets smaller every year?'

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 21:20, Thorsten Kampe thors...@thorstenkampe.de wrote:
 The past is bickering over selfish personal freedoms, the future of is
 unity.

 And a tab is *exactly* four spaces. Not three. Not five. Not eight. For
 you, for me, and for the rest of the world. Amen!


Four is the number thou shalt indent, and the number of the indenting
shall be four. Six thou shalt not indent, neither indent thou two,
excepting that thou then proceed to four. Eight is right out.


-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com
-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Waldek M.
 I'm still looking for the perfect programming font. Suggestions
 welcomed.
 
 When you find it Dotan, let me know, I've been looking since the later 
 '70's.

For me, it's Terminus* (from sourceforge).

Br.
Waldek
[*] As long as you don't need anything but iso8859-1.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
Anders J. Munch wrote:

 Steven D'Aprano wrote:
 I can't fathom why 8 position tabs were *ever* the default, let alone
 why they are still the default.
 
 That's because they were not invented as a means for programmers to vary
 indentation.
 
 Originally, tabs were a navigation device: When you press the tab key, you
 skip ahead to the next tab column.

No, when you pressed the Tab key on a typewriter (BTDT), you advanced to the 
next tab _stop_.  This made it easier to write tables (tab from 
tabulate) on a typewriter (the alternative was time-consuming and error-
prone use of the space and backspace keys).  With the evolution of the 
(personal) computer, its use in offices and at home, and peripheral devices 
like the dot matrix printer, typewriters fell out of common use, but the 
terms associated with them were incorporated into information technology 
language (cf. TTY, originally teletypewriter, e. g.).

 The reason the tab stop is a full 8 positions: for faster navigation.

No, the reason is that table columns should be as far enough away from each 
other to be distinguishable.

 If it were 3 positions, it would take forever to skip from the start of
 line to column 60.  You'd appreciate that, if you were e.g. writing a
 fiduciary report with some text to the left and two number columns to the
 right, back in the day before spreadsheets and word processor tables. 
 Skip a column or two too far?

I am getting the idea here that you mean the right thing, but that you 
explain it wrong.

-- 
PointedEars

Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail. / Please do not Cc: me.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread rantingrick
On Jul 17, 1:22 pm, Tim Chase python.l...@tim.thechases.com wrote:

  Solution: STOP USING BROKEN TOOLS!!!

 Unbroken tools that do anything worthwhile are usually
 complicated tools.

 Just pointing that out in case you missed the irony...

You make a good point, albeit a very well know point. It's the same
kind of point Newton made when he wrote the laws of physics. Everyone
since cavemen knew that a falling apple would continue to fall until
the ground stopped it from falling. They just did not have the
eloquent phrasing of Newton to express the idea in words.

You've made the exact same well know expression as Newton. However we
do need to explore this subject of broken tools vs unbroken tools a
bit more. First let's start by understanding the difference between
broken and unbroken editors in the arena of tab width.


 Tabs Explained:

But what IS tab width exactly? Is it a simple unit of measurement like
four inches or 22 millimeters, or etc? Well it can be, but for the
most part it is something more. Especially in the arena of source code
editors!

In any plain text editor (i am not speaking of rich text editors or a
plain text editor in rich-text mode) where you have only one global
font choice at any given time a tab width should be the sum of N
glyphs multiplied by the current glyph width.

Here is some python code:

| glyphW = 10.0 # in milimeters
| def set_tab_width(nSpaces):
|   return glyphW * nSpaces
| set_tab_width(1)
|10.0
| set_tab_width(10)
|100.0

We as humans use numbers of spaces to define a tab width but
numbers of spaces is only an abstraction so we don't have to deal
with absolute measurements.


 Fixed Width Fonts:

If you are using a fixed-width-font you want the editor to use
relative spacing (relative to a glyph width) when defining tab width
in spaces.


 Non Fixed Width Fonts:

On the other hand if you use non-fixed-width-font you want the editor
to use absolute measurements (since glyphs can be different widths)
when defining tab width.


 Conclusion

If your editor does not support as minimum the fixed width version, it
is broken. There is NOTHING complicated about creating tab width based
on the sum of N glyphs.


-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
Dotan Cohen wrote:

 On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 15:53, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
 […]  I do not understand how you can consider using a non-fixed-width
 font in programming a real pleasure as many them show a lot of
 ambiguities in source code.  Take for example the lowercase l (el) vs.
 the capital I (ai) vs. the | (pipe) character, or the 0 (zero) vs.
 the capital O (oh) character in Arial.
 
 The ambiguity has never been an issue for me. In the unlikely event
 that an l (el) is in the place of a pipe, the code won't compile and
 I'll get an error on the line in question. Though that has never
 actually happened: the IDE is double-checking way before the code gets
 to the compiler. Zero vs. O (oh), I've never had this issue either and
 even if one key was hit in place of the other (they are close by) then
 either the IDE or compiler would catch it, or it would result in a
 minor bug in a text string.
 
 It simply isn't an issue.

Apparently it is *has not been* an issue for *you* *yet*.  There are 
languages (like Python) that are compiled just-in-time.  Besides, neither an 
IDE nor a compiler can (always) recognize that foo[b0r] is not foo[bOr] 
(which really is not a far-fetched example as the O and zero keys are 
adjacent to each other on in keyboard layouts).  You do not want such an 
ambiguity to bite you later.

-- 
PointedEars

Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail. / Please do not Cc: me.
-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread rantingrick
On Jul 17, 1:48 pm, Ian Kelly ian.g.ke...@gmail.com wrote:

 Let me get this straight.  You want us to use tabs so that individuals
 can set their tab width to however many spaces they want, but then you
 want everybody to set their tab widths to 4 spaces.  You're
 contradicting yourself here.

In my mind people are free to use whatever width they like. A tab is a
tab is a tab. However for judging line widths we must pick one size
tab (since 8 space tabs will create longer lines than four space tabs.
This four space mandate is ONLY for determining line width. Let me
repeat. ONLY FOR DETERMINING LINE WIDTH.

How else could we decide what is truly 80 chars and what is not?


-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread rantingrick
On Jul 17, 1:54 pm, Ian Kelly ian.g.ke...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 10:29 AM, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
  I hate  vertical white-space. I follow Python style guide suggestions,
  and then some! I hate when people insert spaces into code blocks and
  function/method bodies. If you feel a space must be inserted then that
  is a good clue you should be using a comment there instead. Vertical
  breaks should only happen before and after classes, methods,
  functions, groups of GLOBALS, groups of import statements. Think of
  func/method bodies as paragraphs and classes as sections of a book.
  Two vertical spaces between classes and one vertical space between
  func/methods.

 You know, there is such a thing as a vertical tab.  If we're going to
 take your suggestion of mandating tabs (for greater freedom!), should
 we not follow it to its logical conclusion and mandate the usage of
 vertical tabs instead of multiple newlines?  Then everybody could
 choose for themselves how many lines they want a vertical tab to
 represent

On the face of it one might think vertical tabs are a good idea
however newlines work just fine. There is no reason for expanding
vertical whitespace to create readble code. If you can offer a good
reason i'm listening. Also be sure to post links where others have
requested the same.

Besides, horizontal tabs are tied closely to distinguishing code
blocks. Vertical tabs do not have such a benefit. Instead of vertical
tabs we need strict rules on vertical code formatting. I intend to
draft AND implement such rules very shortly.

  It should be MANDATED. And these @holes who refuse to format their
  code in a community standard will suffer the plague of syntax errors.
  Who do these people think they are? Do they believe the rules do not
  apply to them? I'll tell you who they are, they are F'ING format
  criminals.

 I think I get it now.  Your idea of freedom is that anybody can do
 whatever they want as long as it's not illegal,

In a programming language yes. You're trying to draw correlations
between morality and law. In the arena of programming there is no such
thing as morality, only the law.

 and the ruling party
 just makes anything it doesn't like illegal.  In other words, a
 monarchy.

What do you think we have now, a democracy? Does Benevolent?-Dictator-
For-Life ring a bell?

I can tell you one thing for sure. In MY version of Python everyone
will have a voice. That does not mean that EVERYONE will make the
final decision but EVERYONE's voice will be equally important. I can
also tell you this. I will not hide under the coat tails of my dev
team , NO, i will mingle with the people on my comp.lang.rickpy list.
Mats (Ruby's creator) will answer questions on comp.lang.ruby so why
does Guido refuse to acknowledge us here on comp.lang.python?
-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread rantingrick
On Jul 17, 2:34 pm, Thorsten Kampe thors...@thorstenkampe.de wrote:

 Indentation alignment will (because you're using only spaces). Otherwise
 it doesn't align (it can't), simply because of the variable-width.

 For instance (in a variable-width font):

 if a == b:
     var123    = 22
     varxyz456 = 333
           ^
 aligned       not aligned

 Thorsten

Tabs will align properly in variable width font if the editor is NOT
broken. When displaying a variable width font the editor should switch
from using the sum of N glyphs to a user defined total width in
absolute measurements (like millimeters). Alternatively if the editor
had to guess it could just use the widest glyph of the current set.

People, please stop using broken tools. If you stop using them people
won't keep producing them. Just imagine how great the world would be
if we could convince windows users!

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Dotan Cohen
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 22:53, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
pointede...@web.de wrote:
 It simply isn't an issue.

 Apparently it is *has not been* an issue for *you* *yet*.  There are
 languages (like Python) that are compiled just-in-time.  Besides, neither an
 IDE nor a compiler can (always) recognize that foo[b0r] is not foo[bOr]
 (which really is not a far-fetched example as the O and zero keys are
 adjacent to each other on in keyboard layouts).  You do not want such an
 ambiguity to bite you later.


I do agree that in a weakly-typed language such as python one might
conceivably try to use an undeclared variable and the IDE and compiler
won't catch that. However 0 vs. O would more likely be 0 vs. o as one
would really have to mess up bad to not only press the wrong key but
also hit shift at the same time. 0 and o are no harder to distinguish
in a VWF than in a FWF.

For that matter, why is it assumed that fixed-width fonts by nature
better distinguish 0 from O, or any other ambiguous characters? My
current system (Kubuntu 11.04, default VWF font in Firefox whatever it
may be) distinguished 0 from O just fine. Also I/1 and l/1 are easy to
distinguish, but I agree that I/l are not.

-- 
Dotan Cohen

http://gibberish.co.il
http://what-is-what.com
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Ian Kelly
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 1:54 PM, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Jul 17, 1:48 pm, Ian Kelly ian.g.ke...@gmail.com wrote:

 Let me get this straight.  You want us to use tabs so that individuals
 can set their tab width to however many spaces they want, but then you
 want everybody to set their tab widths to 4 spaces.  You're
 contradicting yourself here.

 In my mind people are free to use whatever width they like. A tab is a
 tab is a tab. However for judging line widths we must pick one size
 tab (since 8 space tabs will create longer lines than four space tabs.
 This four space mandate is ONLY for determining line width. Let me
 repeat. ONLY FOR DETERMINING LINE WIDTH.

 How else could we decide what is truly 80 chars and what is not?

You're so focused on declaring code as compliant or not that you're
missing the whole point of having the line width mandate in the first
place.  It exists so that people using 80-column editors can open up
code without having line-wrapping problems.  You can arbitrarily
declare that line width is to be measured using 4-space tabs, and you
can stamp code as being correctly formatted by that metric all you
want, but it doesn't change the fact that if somebody with 8-space
tabs opens up a file and has to deal with line-wrapping problems, the
system has failed them.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Gregory Ewing

Anders J. Munch wrote:


  Cameron Simpson wrote:
  Personally, I like to use the tab _key_ as an input device, but to have
  my editor write real spaces to the file in consequence.

Just like in the old days:)


Most editors can be configured to do that.

Where they fall down, in my experience, is that having inserted
those spaces, if you want to delete them you typically have to
backspace over them one at a time.

I don't enjoy that experience, which is why I have BBEdit Lite
set up to use tab-only indentation. If I'm feeling conscientious,
I convert to spaces before sharing the code with others. But tabs
work better for me given the tools I use and the way I like to
work.

--
Greg
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Cameron Simpson
On 17Jul2011 09:53, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
| On Jul 17, 4:49 am, Anders J. Munch 2...@jmunch.dk wrote:
|  Originally, tabs were a navigation device: When you press the tab key, you 
skip
|  ahead to the next tab column.  The notion that whitespace characters are
|  inserted into the text would have been very alien to someone using text
|  processing software anno 1970.  Same thing with space and enter; on 
typewriters
|  the space bar doesn't type anything onto the paper, it moves to the next
|  column, and that thinking carried over to computers.
| 
| And how much longer are we going to live in the past? Who cares about
| backward compatible tabs.

Anders was explaining, not supporting-for-the-future.

| Mandate the four space tab now! Mandate that
| Python takes four space and four space only! We shall lead the charge
| for universal tab unity in all programming languages.

You really don't know what you're talking about, do you? If Python
mandates this (hahaha!) the Perl crowd will immediately move to a more
advanced standard, likely 5 space indents (nicely decimalisable) while
indenting by two tabs (to flexibly leave room for more intermediate
logic to be inserted later with less diff noise, which they will find
hard to distinguish from program code).

|  The reason the tab stop is a full 8 positions: for faster navigation.  If it
|  were 3 positions, it would take forever to skip from the start of line to 
column
|  60.  You'd appreciate that, if you were e.g. writing a fiduciary report with
|  some text to the left and two number columns to the right, back in the day
|  before spreadsheets and word processor tables.
| 
| Just in case you were not aware this the year 2011. Spreadsheets have
| been around for a LONG time. Stop living the past.

The past was better. Always was and will be increasingly so in the
future. Stop fighting the tide!
-- 
Cameron Simpson c...@zip.com.au DoD#743
http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/

Pardon my driving, I'm trying to reload.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Ian Kelly
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 2:12 PM, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:
 On the face of it one might think vertical tabs are a good idea
 however newlines work just fine. There is no reason for expanding
 vertical whitespace to create readble code. If you can offer a good
 reason i'm listening. Also be sure to post links where others have
 requested the same.

Okay:

1) Vertical tabs create freedom in the form of user controlled vertical spacing.

Vertical spacing height should be a choice of the reader NOT the author. We
should never code in vertical spacing height; but that is EXACTLY what we
are doing with newlines! No, the reader should be able to choose the
vertical spacing height without ANY formatting required or without any
collateral damage to the source code. Vertical tabs offer freedom,
newlines offer
oppression.

2) Vertical tabs remove the need for complicated newline-formatting tools.

With vertical tabs only you no longer need those fancy tools to add
the correct number of newlines between classes or methods.. THAT IS
EXACTLY WHY VERTICAL TABS
WHERE INVENTED! Why are we not using this technology? Why are we
continuing to promote newlines when vertical tabs are obviously more superior?

And as to why we should remove newlines:

3) Using only one vertical space token removes any chance of user error.

Unlike many syntactical errors, vertical space is invisible in a text/
source editor. Sure there are tools that can make vertical space visible,
however why do we constantly create asinine rules that force us to use
complicated tools when we could have choose vertical tabs and none of this
would have been a problem?

4) Vertical tabs maintain unity in the source code base.

When we replace newlines only with vertical tabs only we maintain
a code base that promotes unity and
not conformity. There shall not be any inconsistent vertical spacing
errors due to mixing vertical tabs and newlines. Also we can avoid
adding multiplicity
to the compiler. The compiler will not have to consider BOTH vertical tabs AND
newlines as valid vertical spacing tokens, only vertical tabs. The
logic would be much
simpler.

 Besides, horizontal tabs are tied closely to distinguishing code
 blocks. Vertical tabs do not have such a benefit. Instead of vertical
 tabs we need strict rules on vertical code formatting. I intend to
 draft AND implement such rules very shortly.

Vertical spacing helps to visually separate classes from other
classes, and methods from other methods.

 I think I get it now.  Your idea of freedom is that anybody can do
 whatever they want as long as it's not illegal,

 In a programming language yes. You're trying to draw correlations
 between morality and law. In the arena of programming there is no such
 thing as morality, only the law.

You have been drawing the same correlation from your very first post
where you stated, Tabs offer freedom, spaces offer oppression.

 and the ruling party
 just makes anything it doesn't like illegal.  In other words, a
 monarchy.

 What do you think we have now, a democracy? Does Benevolent?-Dictator-
 For-Life ring a bell?

I don't see Guido going around making ridiculous pronouncements about
what forms of indentation are acceptable (beyond the standards that
are set and expected for the standard library, that is).  He could
have made the language space-only from the very beginning.  He didn't;
that should tell you something.  He also could have insisted that the
parser only accept source written in the ISO-8859-1 encoding for
unity and freedom, but he didn't.  Or he could have stated absolute
imports only from the very beginning, and yet even in Python 3 where
the old-style relative imports have been removed, relative imports are
still available to be used.

 I can tell you one thing for sure. In MY version of Python everyone
 will have a voice. That does not mean that EVERYONE will make the
 final decision but EVERYONE's voice will be equally important.

Thanks, but I won't be needing a voice, because your version of Python
will clearly be too limiting from the ground up for me to have any
interest in using it in the first place.

 I can
 also tell you this. I will not hide under the coat tails of my dev
 team , NO, i will mingle with the people on my comp.lang.rickpy list.
 Mats (Ruby's creator) will answer questions on comp.lang.ruby so why
 does Guido refuse to acknowledge us here on comp.lang.python?

Probably for the same reason that (I presume) he doesn't spend all day
answering Python questions on stackoverflow or responding to comments
about Python on slashdot: he can get more done in his actual job by
unsubscribing.

If you want to have input on Python, all you have to do is subscribe
to python-dev.  Of course, it *is* a moderated list, so if you make as
much of a nuisance of yourself over there as you do here, they might
kick you out.
-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.17 03:12 PM, rantingrick wrote:
 I can tell you one thing for sure. In MY version of Python everyone 
 will have a voice. That does not mean that EVERYONE will make the 
 final decision but EVERYONE's voice will be equally important.
That reminds me of Full Metal Jacket.
Here you are all equally worthless.

- -- 
CPython 3.2.1 | Windows NT 6.1.7601.17592 | Thunderbird 5.0
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.17 11:46 AM, rantingrick wrote:
 Why do you feel the need to layout your code in a GUI-listview 
 manner. Next you'll want column titles and column sorting... Jeez! 
 This is what you should have done...
I was testing my psychic abilities. I had the feeling that such a layout
would irritate you, so I had to try it. Before, I thought this psychic
stuff was all hokey, but now...

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.17 06:29 PM, Roy Smith wrote:
 We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my mind that 
 we're still churning out people with 80 column minds.  I'm willing
 to entertain arguments about readability of long lines, but the idea 
 that there's something magic about 80 columns is hogwash.
I think the reason the idea isn't dead is because of the emergence of
new devices with small displays (tablets/smartphones/etc.) and their
increasing popularity. When writing code that is meant to be run on
desktops or servers, the 80-column limit is mostly irrelevant, but
Python running on these small devices, especially with Python code being
interpreted rather than compiled, it's convenient to edit code on those
platforms, where there is a significant column limit.

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Roy Smith
In article mailman.1196.1310946970.1164.python-l...@python.org,
 Andrew Berg bahamutzero8...@gmail.com wrote:

 -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
 Hash: RIPEMD160
 
 On 2011.07.17 06:29 PM, Roy Smith wrote:
  We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my mind that 
  we're still churning out people with 80 column minds.  I'm willing
  to entertain arguments about readability of long lines, but the idea 
  that there's something magic about 80 columns is hogwash.
 I think the reason the idea isn't dead is because of the emergence of
 new devices with small displays (tablets/smartphones/etc.) and their
 increasing popularity. When writing code that is meant to be run on
 desktops or servers, the 80-column limit is mostly irrelevant, but
 Python running on these small devices, especially with Python code being
 interpreted rather than compiled, it's convenient to edit code on those
 platforms, where there is a significant column limit.

Can you give me a more specific example?  I assume there's nobody (at 
least nobody sane) editing Python source code on iPhones.  I'll admit 
I'm not that familiar with the plethora of tablets and handheld devices 
out there.  Are there really devices which impose exactly an 80-column 
width?
-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.17 07:28 PM, Roy Smith wrote:
 Can you give me a more specific example?  I assume there's nobody (at
  least nobody sane) editing Python source code on iPhones.
I haven't done it myself, but there are plenty of Python projects out
there made for mobile devices, and I would imagine the convenience of
editing on the platform itself to test things immediately outweighs the
inconvenience of a small display and tiny keyboard.

 Are there really devices which impose exactly an 80-column width?
Font size can be changed, so it's not a matter of a fixed number of
characters, but rather how many characters can fit on such a small
display at a reasonable size. My guess is that 80 is pretty arbitrary
nowadays, but it's much easier to stick with 80 than debate over it,
especially when display sizes vary so greatly among these devices.

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

I should also mention that this mostly speculation on my part, and that
I would love to hear from someone who develops for these devices.

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Steven D'Aprano
Chris Angelico wrote:

 On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 2:53 AM, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 [a whole lot of guff]
 
 Rick, you need to:
 
 1) Grab the Python source code
 2) Make your own version of Python that works the way you want it
 3) Call it something different
 4) Start your own mailing list.
 
 Put your money - or, in this case, development time - where your big
 ranting mouth is. Prove that your ideas are worth something by acting
 on them.

Ha ha, oh that's hilarious!!!

Back in 2007, a n00b calling himself TheFlyingDutchman who I am
*reasonably* sure was Rick decided to fork Python:

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2007-September/1127123.html

Then in 2010, Rick promised that if the Python developers didn't bow to his
demands, he would folk Python, and the silent majority who agreed with him
but were too terrified to say so publicly would drop CPython in a flash and
follow him.

Thread starts here: read and weep.

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/python/python/835227?do=post_view_threaded#835227

How's that fork going Rick? Written a single line of code yet?



-- 
Steven

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Mel
Andrew Berg wrote:
 I should also mention that this mostly speculation on my part, and that
 I would love to hear from someone who develops for these devices.

There's a mailing list for Python scripting on Android -- 
List-Subscribe: http://groups.google.com/group/python-for-
android/subscribe?hl=en_US, mailto:python-for-
android+subscr...@googlegroups.com 
. Tends to be pretty detail-oriented.

Mel.

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Steven D'Aprano
Roy Smith wrote:

 We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my mind that
 we're still churning out people with 80 column minds.  I'm willing to
 entertain arguments about readability of long lines, but the idea that
 there's something magic about 80 columns is hogwash.

I agree! Which is why I set my line width to 78 columns. 


-- 
Steven

-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Mel
Andrew Berg wrote:
 I should also mention that this mostly speculation on my part, and that
 I would love to hear from someone who develops for these devices.

There's a mailing list for Python scripting on Android -- 
List-Subscribe: http://groups.google.com/group/python-for-
android/subscribe?hl=en_US, mailto:python-for-
android+subscr...@googlegroups.com 
. Tends to be pretty detail-oriented.

Mel.

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Steven D'Aprano
Steven D'Aprano wrote:

 Roy Smith wrote:
 
 We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my mind that
 we're still churning out people with 80 column minds.  I'm willing to
 entertain arguments about readability of long lines, but the idea that
 there's something magic about 80 columns is hogwash.
 
 I agree! Which is why I set my line width to 78 columns.

Sorry, that looks like a troll, but isn't.

I seriously do set my editor to a soft limit of 78 characters. That is, I
can exceed it if I want, but almost never do.

Why 78? Because it's one less than 79, as mandated by PEP 8, and two less
than 80, the hoary old standard. The reasons given in PEP 8 for 79 make
sense to me, and I don't like reading really long lines of code. With one
exception, if your line of code needs more than 79 plus or minus 1
characters, chances are it is doing too much.

The exception is, you have an indented block of code, perhaps three or four
indents deep (surely you never allow anything to get beyond five or six
indents?), and you want to raise an exception:

raise SomeExceptionType(and here's a rather long error
message blah blah blah)

If I only go a character or two over, I might be tempted to just go over.
But normally I split the line, as above, and use implicit line
concatenation.


http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/


-- 
Steven

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.17 07:54 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
 Then in 2010, Rick promised that if the Python developers didn't bow
 to his demands, he would folk Python, and the silent majority who
 agreed with him but were too terrified to say so publicly would drop
 CPython in a flash and follow him.
 
 Thread starts here: read and weep.
 
 http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/python/python/835227?do=post_view_threaded#835227

  How's that fork going Rick? Written a single line of code yet?
I skimmed through the first post a bit and it's hilarious. TL;DR for
now, but I'll read the whole thread later. I'm still surprised how much
entertainment I get from a programming language newsgroup.

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-17 Thread Ben Finney
Steven D'Aprano steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info writes:

 The exception is, you have an indented block of code, perhaps three or four
 indents deep (surely you never allow anything to get beyond five or six
 indents?), and you want to raise an exception:

 raise SomeExceptionType(and here's a rather long error
 message blah blah blah)

Give yourself plenty more room, stay within PEP 8, *and* make the
alignment robust in the face of changes::

raise SomeExceptionType(
and here's a rather long error
message blah blah blah)

-- 
 \   “I have one rule to live by: Don't make it worse.” —Hazel |
  `\  Woodcock |
_o__)  |
Ben Finney
-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread Dan Stromberg
On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 9:51 AM, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:


 --
  Summary
 --
 As we all know python allows us to use either tabs or spaces but NEVER
 both in the same source file. And as we also know the python style
 guide says we should use four spaces and refrain from using tabs at
 all costs. Up until now i have blindly followed this pronouncement
 form our leader.


I greatly prefer tabs over spaces for two reasons:
1) As you said, tabs make indentation the choice of the reader, not the
writer
2) Many make (the build tool) programs only do tabs, so I don't end up
flipping back and forth between tabs and spaces when moving from Python to
make and back (often in the same vi session)

But despite the inflexibility of spaces, they are simpler; there are some
reasonably strong  computer folk who don't get tabs.  I suspect that's why
spaces won.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.16 11:51 AM, rantingrick wrote:
 -- Evidence: Tabs ARE
 superior! --
That may be the case (for indentation, NOT alignment), but you're still
a damn troll. ;)


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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread Tim Roberts
rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com wrote:

As we all know python allows us to use either tabs or spaces but NEVER
both in the same source file.

That's not true.  Python allows tabs and spaces to be used in the same
source file, and even in the same source line.

I'm not saying it's wise, but it certainly allowed.
-- 
Tim Roberts, t...@probo.com
Providenza  Boekelheide, Inc.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread Cameron Simpson
On 16Jul2011 09:51, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com trolled:
|  Evidence: Tabs ARE superior!
| --
| I have begun to believe that tabs are far more superior to spaces

Please Rick: you need at least three things to use the term more
superior. With only two, you just have superior. It grates.

Personally, I prefer spaces to tabs, at least fgor my Python code and
generally anyway. Why? Well to some extent because I share files with
another who uses 4 position tabs. Editing these is a real nightmare if
one uses 8 position tabs (as I do, the common editor/terminal default
these days). For pure indentation you may get sane (if wider that liked)
results, bit any multicolumn stuff is badly broken by the mismatch.

Personally, I like to use the tab _key_ as an input device, but to have
my editor write real spaces to the file in consequence. With pure
spaces, the text is laid out reliably for us both. And so I have my
editor set to that behaviour.

[...]
| 3) Tabs create freedom in the form of user controlled indention.

Only for leading indentation, not following indentation.
Consider docstrings and other stuff with embedded fixed witdh layout.

| Indention width should be a choice of the reader NOT the author.

Sure, perhaps.

| 4) Tabs remove the need for complicated indention/detention tools.
| With tabs only you no longer need those fancy tools to indent or de-
| dent after a tab or backspace key-press. THAT IS EXACTLY WHY TABS
| WHERE INVENTED! Why are we not using this technology? Why are we
| continuing to promote spaces when tabs are obviously more superior?

Again with the more superior:-( Tabs were devised to lay out multiple
columns reliably on physical media, to produce tabular output. But your
proposal really only works for leading indents in a fixed with system,
not multiple indents on the same line (see my 4 versus 8 example
above).

| --
|  Conclusion: There IS freedom in unity!
| --
| When you can create a mandate that brings both UNITY and FREEDOM to
| your community you know you made the correct choice! Tabs are both
| unity and freedom at the same time because tabs UNIFY the code base
| whist giving FREEDOM to view source in any indentation with WITHOUT
| extra formatting required.
| 
| Source code must follow rules. And source code authors must follow
| these rule. Anyone who claims that syntactical rules in a programming
| language are evil because these rules somehow quell freedom is just
| a complete nut job. Programming languages MUST have rules or
| ambiguities will run a muck and bring the entire system crashing down.

Amuck is one word you know...

Anyway, plenty of systems have abiguities, many very deliberate. It is
_good_ design in many cases to deliberately leave various things
unspecified - it allows flexibility in implementation. Provided enough
is specified to meet the use case one should often stop at that point.

| Some would argue that allowing both tabs and spaces is freedom,
| however this line of reasoning is flawed. Allowing a programmer to
| format his code in way he pleases is bad, bad, bad. As a member of a
| community we must all format our code in the same manner.

This leads me to think you're just trolling.

In a particular grouping of shared code I will adhere to the agreed upon
style guides (almost always). But forcing _your_ style guide on all
Python users? You can just f- off.

| Would it be wise for folks to choose which side of the road to drive
| on?

Sure. But so much of the world chose the _wrong_ side. I drive on the
left, as do all right thinking people.

| Would it be wise for folks to choose which red lights to stop at (or
| not stop at)?

They do already.

| Would it be wise to allow people to kill other people in the name of
| freedom?

I thought they did this, too.

| If we continue along this flawed line of reasoning then one could
| extrapolate just about any excuse for any action under the guise of
| personal freedom. These people are selfish by nature and they don't
| care about their own responsibilities to a greater community. They
| exist only to please themselves. We (as a community) should not care
| what they think until they decide to stop being selfish.
| 
| We should never create languages that cater to the selfish. Our rules
| must take in consideration the good of the many, and NEVER the good
| of the few. We should ALWAYS give our community freedoms; but only
| the freedoms that foster unity! Tabs meet both criteria and as such
| should be Pythons only token for indention formatting.

It must be nice to always be right.

In fact, I know it is, being so myself. You haven't yet reached that
happy state.

Cheers,
-- 
Cameron Simpson c...@zip.com.au DoD#743
http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/

Will you come quietly, or shall I use earplugs?
-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread Dan Stromberg
On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 4:52 PM, Cameron Simpson c...@zip.com.au wrote:

 Well to some extent because I share files with
 another who uses 4 position tabs. Editing these is a real nightmare if
 one uses 8 position tabs (as I do, the common editor/terminal default
 these days).


8's been the default in pretty much everything for as long as I can
remember.


 For pure indentation you may get sane (if wider that liked)
 results, bit any multicolumn stuff is badly broken by the mismatch.


That's why you use tabs before your commands, spaces after your commands -
if you insist on putting comments on the same line as a command.

It's also why it's better to put comments on lines by themselves, rather
than tacking them onto the end of something else.
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread Andrew Berg
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.16 06:52 PM, Cameron Simpson wrote:
 Only for leading indentation, not following indentation. Consider 
 docstrings and other stuff with embedded fixed witdh layout.
I try to avoid aligning things unless not doing it really hurts
readability for that reason. For example, in most of my source files, I
use tabs to indent. Since Python won't allow a mix of tabs and spaces
(for whitespace) on one line, I don't try to align things:

else:
self.x264_cmd = [
self.x264_exe, self.avs_file,
'--fps', self.fpsr,
'--sar', self.sar,
'--crf', self.crf,
'--level', self.level,
'--keyint', self.ki,
'--min-keyint', self.minki,
'--ref', self.ref,
'--weightp', self.weightp,
'--bframes', self.bframes,
'--b-adapt', self.badapt,
'--me', self.me,
'--merange', self.merange,
'--direct', self.direct,
'--trellis', self.trellis,
'--subme', self.subme,
'--deblock', self.deblock,
'--output', self.video_output
]

But it's still very readable.

However, when alignment really matters, such as in a module's setup.py,
spaces are the way to go:

from distutils.core import setup

setup(
name = 'Elucidation',
version  = '0.0.1-WIP',
py_modules   = ['elucidation'],
author   = 'Andrew Berg',
author_email = 'baha...@digital-signal.net',
url  = '',
platforms= 'Windows',
description  = 'Provides a class for storing information on
multimedia files that are to be converted or remuxed and methods to
convert and remux using popular tools.'
)


Of everything I've read on tabs vs. spaces, this is what makes the most
sense to me:
http://www.iovene.com/61/

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread Chris Angelico
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 9:52 AM, Cameron Simpson c...@zip.com.au wrote:
 | Programming languages MUST have rules or
 | ambiguities will run a muck and bring the entire system crashing down.

 Amuck is one word you know...

Yes, but maybe he's wanting to run a MUCK. It's quite possible; I run
a MUD. Now, I'm not sure how ambiguities alone could run the MUCK
without human intervention, but as we know, Rick has the solution to
everything - it always involves other people doing work.

 | We should never create languages that cater to the selfish. Our rules
 | must take in consideration the good of the many, and NEVER the good
 | of the few. We should ALWAYS give our community freedoms; but only
 | the freedoms that foster unity! Tabs meet both criteria and as such
 | should be Pythons only token for indention formatting.

 It must be nice to always be right.

 In fact, I know it is, being so myself. You haven't yet reached that
 happy state.

I was born here. It's a good place to be. (Wait, were we talking about
Australia or Right?)

ChrisA
-- 
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread Cameron Simpson
On 16Jul2011 19:29, Andrew Berg bahamutzero8...@gmail.com wrote:
| Of everything I've read on tabs vs. spaces, this is what makes the most
| sense to me:
| http://www.iovene.com/61/

Makes sense to me. Thanks for the URL. Cheers,
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread Steven D'Aprano
Andrew Berg wrote:

 I try to avoid aligning things unless not doing it really hurts
 readability for that reason. For example, in most of my source files, I
 use tabs to indent. Since Python won't allow a mix of tabs and spaces
 (for whitespace) on one line, I don't try to align things:
 
 else:
 self.x264_cmd = [
 self.x264_exe, self.avs_file,
 '--fps', self.fpsr,
 '--sar', self.sar,
[snip rest of code]
 However, when alignment really matters, such as in a module's setup.py,
 spaces are the way to go:
 
 from distutils.core import setup
 
 setup(
 name = 'Elucidation',
 version  = '0.0.1-WIP',
[snip]


Hilariously, in my newsreader, the first example (allegedly unaligned) was
lined up as straight as an arrow, while the allegedly aligned second
example was completely jagged and all over the place :)

The perils of proportional fonts.


-- 
Steven

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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread Steven D'Aprano
Cameron Simpson wrote:

 On 16Jul2011 09:51, rantingrick rantingr...@gmail.com trolled:
 |  Evidence: Tabs ARE superior!
 | --
 | I have begun to believe that tabs are far more superior to spaces
 
 Please Rick: you need at least three things to use the term more
 superior. With only two, you just have superior. It grates.

Really? If you just say superior, how do you know if it's more superior or
less superior?

*wink*


 Personally, I prefer spaces to tabs, at least fgor my Python code and
 generally anyway. Why? Well to some extent because I share files with
 another who uses 4 position tabs. Editing these is a real nightmare if
 one uses 8 position tabs (as I do, the common editor/terminal default
 these days). 

I can't fathom why 8 position tabs were *ever* the default, let alone why
they are still the default.

 For pure indentation you may get sane (if wider that liked) 
 results, bit any multicolumn stuff is badly broken by the mismatch.

 Personally, I like to use the tab _key_ as an input device, but to have
 my editor write real spaces to the file in consequence. With pure
 spaces, the text is laid out reliably for us both. And so I have my
 editor set to that behaviour.

I have reluctantly come to do the same thing. There is a plethora of broken
tools out there that don't handle tabs well, and consequently even though
tabs for indentation are objectively better, I use spaces because it is
less worse than the alternative.

Victory of worse-is-better.


[...]
 | Some would argue that allowing both tabs and spaces is freedom,
 | however this line of reasoning is flawed. Allowing a programmer to
 | format his code in way he pleases is bad, bad, bad. As a member of a
 | community we must all format our code in the same manner.
 
 This leads me to think you're just trolling.

Slow learner, huh? :)

I'm not sure which is worse... that Rick is trolling, and we still give him
the attention he craves, or that he honestly believes this crap.

I suspect the later. I get the impression that he genuinely has so little
self-awareness that he doesn't notice that for all his talk about FREEDOM,
he's constantly trying to deny it to others by forcing them to do what he
wants them to do.



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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread Andrew Berg
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Hash: RIPEMD160

On 2011.07.16 10:07 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
 Hilariously, in my newsreader, the first example (allegedly
 unaligned) was lined up as straight as an arrow,
It has consistent indentation, but the self.whatever references aren't
aligned.

 The perils of proportional fonts.
Indeed. I have my MUA set up to always send plain text, so I don't think
there's a way I can suggest a font to the recipient (like my favorite
fixed-width font, Courier New).

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CPython 3.2.1 | Windows NT 6.1.7601.17592 | Thunderbird 5.0
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Re: Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

2011-07-16 Thread anand jeyahar
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 08:39, Steven D'Aprano
steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info wrote:

 I have reluctantly come to do the same thing. There is a plethora of broken
 tools out there that don't handle tabs well, and consequently even though
 tabs for indentation are objectively better, I use spaces because it is
 less worse than the alternative.

 Victory of worse-is-better.
Here too. I prefer the 8-space tabs for the simplicity of the input
method. (even while deleting 1 keystroke will do)




 [...]
  | Some would argue that allowing both tabs and spaces is freedom,
  | however this line of reasoning is flawed. Allowing a programmer to
  | format his code in way he pleases is bad, bad, bad. As a member of a
  | community we must all format our code in the same manner.
 
  This leads me to think you're just trolling.

 Slow learner, huh? :)

 I'm not sure which is worse... that Rick is trolling, and we still give him
 the attention he craves, or that he honestly believes this crap.

 I suspect the later. I get the impression that he genuinely has so little
 self-awareness that he doesn't notice that for all his talk about FREEDOM,
 he's constantly trying to deny it to others by forcing them to do what he
 wants them to do.
(denying others freedom) Ha that he is.  But given, i sometimes do go
into these phases (complete and utter lack of self-awareness) i am not
complaining...

Despite all of that, i do believe it will be for the greater good, if
all of us *decide* to use 8-space tabs.
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