Saluton Tony :) On Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:42:04 +0100, Tony Mechelynck dixit: > Please, not Python! Any language where indent levels have a syntactic > function looks like pure sin to me -- even if I usually do indent > program lines for clarity, I prefer the language not to rely on it.
I thought exactly the same... until I actually used the language. After years and years and years of reading poorly indented code, dealing with weird indentation schemes (or worse: no indentation), dealing with mixes of tabs and spaces, etc. having a language with more or less standardized indentation was relieving. Right now the only thing I hate about Python's indentation is that it allows mixing tabs and spaces, and that can lead to problems. When I started learning Python the first thing that came to mind was "heck, syntactic indentation? That MUST be a joke, for sure". I had then strong prejudices against syntactic indentation, which I considered a sin ;) because an indentation mistake may hide a bug. And yes, indentation mistakes are difficult to spot (easier when using Vim, I must say) but syntactic indentation forces the programmer to have a consistent and good indentation policy. Right now I actually like syntactic indentation, although I feel equally comfortable writing in languages with no syntactic indentation. I think that this is more a matter of taste than a good/evil thing. In fact, this is something that your editor should do for you. Anyway, I'm still not sure if a language should force indentation. Certainly, it's not for everyone. The good point here is that, if you use Vim, you don't have to mind if the indentation is syntactically significant or not. I don't mind and I don't care, since Vim indents properly for me. In fact, Vim does a lot of things properly for me, and I have a hard time when I have to use another editor O:)) But I don't feel guilty: computers and programs should do some work for you, not the other way around, and Vim does a lot for me when I'm editing. Since indentation is one subject about which I have changed my mind a couple of times during my life, I don't discard new changes. Maybe in the future Python indentation will bite me with a nasty and difficult to spot bug, maybe I will like to change my indentation style (again), who knows. Fortunately Vim makes those mind-changing things much easier. If I prefer to indent just with spaces, Vim does it right. If I prefer tabs, Vim does it right. If I prefer a mix, Vim does it right!. I can even write code with my favourite indentation style and then send the patch to another developer and change indentation to *his* style with a few keystrokes or a few "s" commands. So, discussions about indentation have no sense now to me: Vim can support almost any indentation style and can convert between them easily. > OTOH, Emacs uses Lisp, which is supposed to be a "standard" language, > one you might "not have to learn" when you first meet Emacs because > you might already know it, but in fact the subjective "ugliness" I hate LISP. I had to use once back in the university and it's, to date, the language that I've hated most. It has it's good uses, of course, but I wouldn't use it as a general purpose scripting language. And yes, that's one of the reasons I've kept Emacs to a distance for many years. Vimscript is, IMHO, much better for an editor because it's easier to learn for a beginner. Raúl "DervishD" Núñez de Arenas Coronado -- Linux Registered User 88736 | http://www.dervishd.net It's my PC and I'll cry if I want to... RAmen! We are waiting for 13 Feb 2009 23:31:30 +0000 ... --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
