39 ms·

> you’re going to be indenting anyway, so why bother with the brackets? Because brackets are explicit. Whitespace is implicit and difficult to distinguish wit

> you’re going to be indenting anyway, so why bother with the brackets? Because brackets are explicit. Whitespace is implicit and difficult to distinguish without editor support.

iainmerrick 8y ago
I did say not everyone buys it! :) More seriously, the earlier comment complained that the indentation for the non-significant-whitespace examples was artificial. I’m saying it’s not artificial because in practice you would indent it.
- reificator 8y ago
  Oh yeah I agree on that front entirely, I just wanted to comment on the other piece.
Jedd 8y ago
> > you’re going to be indenting anyway, so why bother with the brackets? > Because brackets are explicit. Whitespace is implicit and difficult to distinguish without editor support. I'm with parent on this one. Most people who complain about python's reliance on indentation still indent their code, and rely on the visual & editor hints (ie. they're profoundly confused when they muck up their indentation, but their brackets are still correct). But I digress. Whitespace is explicit in some (markup) languages, and there's nothing *plicitly wrong with that. If you're trying to do any kind of editing of a (markup) language that relies on sensible indentation with an editor that doesn't understand whitespace then you've probably got bigger problems.
- reificator 8y ago
  > Whitespace is explicit in some (markup) languages, and there's nothing plicitly wrong with that.* Whitespace is never explicit. It only exists as the gap between other characters. You only perceive its absence. > If you're trying to do any kind of editing of a (markup) language that relies on sensible indentation with an editor that doesn't understand whitespace then you've probably got bigger problems. Which is why they should not be used for configuration files.

39 ms·

> you’re going to be indenting anyway, so why bother with the brackets? Because brackets are explicit. Whitespace is implicit and difficult to distinguish wit

by reificator 8y ago

> you’re going to be indenting anyway, so why bother with the brackets? Because brackets are explicit. Whitespace is implicit and difficult to distinguish without editor support.

iainmerrick 8y ago
I did say not everyone buys it! :) More seriously, the earlier comment complained that the indentation for the non-significant-whitespace examples was artificial. I’m saying it’s not artificial because in practice you would indent it.
- reificator 8y ago
  Oh yeah I agree on that front entirely, I just wanted to comment on the other piece.
Jedd 8y ago
> > you’re going to be indenting anyway, so why bother with the brackets? > Because brackets are explicit. Whitespace is implicit and difficult to distinguish without editor support. I'm with parent on this one. Most people who complain about python's reliance on indentation still indent their code, and rely on the visual & editor hints (ie. they're profoundly confused when they muck up their indentation, but their brackets are still correct). But I digress. Whitespace is explicit in some (markup) languages, and there's nothing *plicitly wrong with that. If you're trying to do any kind of editing of a (markup) language that relies on sensible indentation with an editor that doesn't understand whitespace then you've probably got bigger problems.
- reificator 8y ago
  > Whitespace is explicit in some (markup) languages, and there's nothing plicitly wrong with that.* Whitespace is never explicit. It only exists as the gap between other characters. You only perceive its absence. > If you're trying to do any kind of editing of a (markup) language that relies on sensible indentation with an editor that doesn't understand whitespace then you've probably got bigger problems. Which is why they should not be used for configuration files.