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Re: Tabs v.s. spaces



On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 11:04:48AM -0800, Steve Lamb wrote:
> H. S. Teoh wrote:
> >Yeah, 'whitespace' about sums up the value of it. Except to Python
> >programmers, of course. :-P :-P
> 
>     Quite the contrary.  First off generally flames are from the 
>     uninformed. Since in most cases the evils of whitespace are spouted off by 
>  those who have never once touched Python it is generally they who are 
> flaming and not those who have actually used it.
> 
>     Secondly clearly they are deriving some worth from it.  I mean you did 
> post 12 messages to this thread.  More than me, in fact.
> 
>     Finally I am still waiting for an answer to my two questions posed to 
>     you.
> 
> 1: Have you ever used Python?
> 
> 2: Provide an example of such free-style coding that you speak highly of.

I have two serious examples and one light-hearted one:

Serious #1:

*It looks like multi-line method invocations require parenthesis to be 
indented at the paren level.  Sometimes that's useful, but often I like 
to pack arguments tighter than that and indent only once on subsequent 
lines:
    myreallylongmethodname(bar, bar, bar, bar, bar,
      baz, baz, baz);
    myreallylongmethodname(bar, bar, bar, bar, bar,
                           baz, baz, baz);

Serious #2:

Multiple statements per line in diagnostic code and error flow control.

The operant value in both these cases is some code is relatively 
unimportant to the main flow of the program and doesn't warrant gobs of 
space.  "Real" code should be indented like Python, but if everything is 
"proper", "important" code gets lost in a bunch of scaffolding.
Obiviously high equality code should be simple, but sometimes other 
values weigh slightly higher than writing perfect code, and flexibility 
is useful.


Light-hearted:

Sometimes I just feel like writing crappy multi-line, write-only code 
because it's not intended to change the world, and I want to see it all 
on the screen at once.  Many real-world tasks are like this.

No need to respond to these points, I can kind of predict the answers...


> 
> -- 
>          Steve C. Lamb         | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
>        PGP Key: 8B6E99C5       | main connection to the switchboard of 
>        souls.
> -------------------------------+---------------------------------------------




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