Javascript example in the article: function triangle(a,b){ if(a > 0 && b > 0 ){ function sqroot(x){ if( x > 0 ){ return Math.pow(

Javascript example in the article: function triangle(a,b){ if(a > 0 && b > 0 ){ function sqroot(x){ if( x > 0 ){ return Math.pow(x,.5); } else { return 0; } } return sqroot( a*a + b*b ); } else { return 0; } } Can be made much cleaner: function triangle(a,b){ if (a <= 0 || b <= 0 ) return 0 function sqroot(x){ return ( x > 0 ? Math.pow(x,.5) : 0 ) } return sqroot( a*a + b*b ) } I don't know about a whitespace-sensitive language in the browser. Much JS is written by non-coders, later quickly edited on live servers (yeah, I know. But that's reality) etc.. It all comes down to taste, of course, but personally I find Ruby at least as readable as Python, so I'm not sure whitespaces are where the elegance is found.