Re: OT - trivial programming language
Steve Lamb <grey@dmiyu.org> writes:
> Kai Grossjohann wrote:
>> Well, nothing that couldn't be solved with a somewhat wider window.
>> Many people like to have windows wider than 80 columns. (I prefer 80
>> columns, myself.)
>
> And wider paper? The commonly accepted practice is that code should not
> be wider than 80 columns; 78 being about max. That's why most languages
> support splitting of lines with \ or other such constructs.
Maybe I get ugly printout, but at least I get pretty code on screen!
Your proposal means I get ugly printout, and also ugly code on screen.
Argh.
>>> Thank god it doesn't. That is the worst possible style since tab is
>>>meaningless.
>
>> Hm?
>
> How wide is a tab? The only acceptable answer is "as wide as the user
> configures it." This means mixing tabs and spaces for any reason will
> eventually cause problems.
You have mentioned a number of problems, but your proposal has even
more problems.
>>>It is also because of indention and alignment that I think that
>>>people should never, ever, us tabs because there are going to be
>>>some schmucks that break the first rule of never changing the tab
>>>width in the first place.
>
>> Huh?
>
> I set tab width to 4, align at 6. Tab + 2 spaces. Person sets his tabs
> to 8 the line is 10 spaces out, 4 spaces too far. That's why people insist on
> a tab width of 8. If tabs were immutable like that mixing tabs and spaces
> wouldn't be a problem. It's not so it is.
There is a misunderstanding of what alignment means.
Please try to read my proposal again to see that the problem you are
proposing does not occur. (Of course, my proposal works only if tabs
and spaces are used in the right way. If they are used in the wrong
way, then bad things will happen. But that's like the "rm -rf"
command: if used in the right way, good things will happen, if used
in the wrong way, bad things will happen. So this fact does not make
my proposal a bad proposal.)
Kai
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