3 ms·

I think otherwise. Curly braces and semicolons do not serve a purpose. My only beef with F# is multi line expessions...indentation is sometimes weird.

kkarakk 8y ago
curly braces enable code readability, you know where to start reading and you know where to stop reading. the situation is the same with the semicolon. programming languages are written to be read by humans and humans do better with start and stop points. if i've ever blearily looked at code at 3 in the morning,i basically run on autopilot relying on the braces and the semicolons to guide my eyes
- sparkie 8y ago
  If you use VS or Monodevelop, there's are options you can enable which show indentation margins, which is even better than braces. Seems like a non-issue.
  - Koshkin 8y ago
    Basically, you are discussing an attempt to move away from the purely textual, linear representation of program code (at least, in the way the programmer sees it). Yes, sophisticated tooling becomes very important then. But it is not always available.
    - sparkie 8y ago
      I wouldn't say it's really sophisticated tooling. Many basic editors support visual whitespace in one form or another. Some insert a semi-opaque character in place of tabs/spaces, and others show rulers. F# is whitespace sensitive, so you need to stick to correct tab sizes anyway, and it becomes quite readable. For types, you can also add `class`, `interface`, `struct` at the start and `end` on the correct indentation after its definition to show a clear boundary. type X() = class member this.X = ... end
    - phillipcarter 8y ago
      Pretty much any modern C# editor tooling will do this as well. People want tools to show scope even if they use a brace-y language.
- verinus 8y ago
  as I have yet to see source code that is not properly formatted I do not agree. I also think, that formatting code should be a non issue and should be handled by editor preferences. The true problem is, that lots of devs think they write code when they truly define models that a represented by text. Bottom line is: readability is very important, but we should have tooling that helps us with that. e.g: I want coloring for a block not to parse text for a closing brace.

kkarakk 8y ago

curly braces enable code readability, you know where to start reading and you know where to stop reading. the situation is the same with the semicolon. programming languages are written to be read by humans and humans do better with start and stop points. if i've ever blearily looked at code at 3 in the morning,i basically run on autopilot relying on the braces and the semicolons to guide my eyes

sparkie 8y ago
If you use VS or Monodevelop, there's are options you can enable which show indentation margins, which is even better than braces. Seems like a non-issue.
- Koshkin 8y ago
  Basically, you are discussing an attempt to move away from the purely textual, linear representation of program code (at least, in the way the programmer sees it). Yes, sophisticated tooling becomes very important then. But it is not always available.
  - sparkie 8y ago
    I wouldn't say it's really sophisticated tooling. Many basic editors support visual whitespace in one form or another. Some insert a semi-opaque character in place of tabs/spaces, and others show rulers. F# is whitespace sensitive, so you need to stick to correct tab sizes anyway, and it becomes quite readable. For types, you can also add `class`, `interface`, `struct` at the start and `end` on the correct indentation after its definition to show a clear boundary. type X() = class member this.X = ... end
  - phillipcarter 8y ago
    Pretty much any modern C# editor tooling will do this as well. People want tools to show scope even if they use a brace-y language.
verinus 8y ago
as I have yet to see source code that is not properly formatted I do not agree. I also think, that formatting code should be a non issue and should be handled by editor preferences. The true problem is, that lots of devs think they write code when they truly define models that a represented by text. Bottom line is: readability is very important, but we should have tooling that helps us with that. e.g: I want coloring for a block not to parse text for a closing brace.