4 ms·

> But in a language with brackets, the compiler can at least determine scope even when things are poorly-indented. Yes, but can it determine scope if things ar

• smt88 7y ago
  Poor bracketing almost always causes syntax or compiler errors. As long as you have a language that's block-scoped (which is true of modern JavaScript and most other popular languages), you'll get an error if you make a bracketing mistake. That's not true of indent mistakes. Semantic whitespace is lossy -- there's data contained in those brackets that some people think is low-value that it's expendable for the sake of saving keystrokes, but it does have value in practice.
  • fuzz4lyfe 7y ago
    With Python, generally speaking, if you are more than a few indentations deep you are doing something wrong. Flat is better than nested
    • dreamcompiler 7y ago
      That's a good heuristic for a programmer but it's no help to a compiler.