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Your untrained eye took the # for comments, but I'm not sure that generalized to anyone's. Plenty of languages use # for other things: Smalltalk uses them for s
by s-phi-nl 10y ago
Your untrained eye took the # for comments, but I'm not sure that generalized to anyone's. Plenty of languages use # for other things: Smalltalk uses them for symbols, Clojure uses them for reader macros, OCaml uses them for method calls, Haskell can use them as an arbitrary operator, Lua uses them for length, C and C++ use them for compiler directives. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign#In_computing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_sign#In_computing for a list.
Admittedly, Python, Bash, Perl, and Ruby use # for comments, so you do have a point, especially since Python is such a common teaching language.
- rurban 10y agoNo, the point is the clutter. A pound # is the most intrusive ascii character, with about 85% black. Older languages were critised to use $ with about 55% black as prefix. It's like writing in ALL-CAPS.
- yAak 10y agoThis is a very valid critique in terms of graphic design. (For anyone confused by the mention of graphic design: it's all about communicating information through visuals.)
- optimuspaul 10y agoOh, I thought they were hashtags, I was gonna see if they were trending on twitter.