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> The language is quite strict in its use of spaces and indentation. [...]Misty instead allows only one convention which is strictly enforced. This liberates pr
by fabianholzer 3y ago
> The language is quite strict in its use of spaces and indentation. [...]Misty instead allows only one convention which is strictly enforced. This liberates programmers to focus their attention on more important matters.
I understand the motive, but regardless that makes it an instant no-go for me.
- yawpitch 3y agoOut of curiosity, why? If whitespace is merely an artifact of human readability, why permit (or why not restrict) infinite bikeshedding on that?
- dtagames 3y agoI'll bite. Code is read more often than it is written. Readability leads to comprehension (or detracts from it). So forcing a programmer to lay out code in the designer's favorite format is a net negative for people who can read it easier laid out a different way. Thus, the number of IDE formatters and options we have in languages like JS.
- yawpitch 3y agoThere being no known metric for how _readable_ semantically isomorphic whitespace changes make code, but there being _many_ ways of measuring how much time is spent on shifting whitespace around, I tend to think language communities like Go and gofmt are on to something. Assuming the language actually has a community then it’s not exactly the designer’s preference, ultimately, it’s the community’s.