4 ms·

True, having a round trip to Lisp's standardized format might make this usable. I have to wonder how much of Ruby's success is owed to being unable to trivially

True, having a round trip to Lisp's standardized format might make this usable. I have to wonder how much of Ruby's success is owed to being unable to trivially share Python code with strangers without most of our tools shredding the whitespace.

jacquesm 17y ago
That's one of my pet peeves with python. Even sites like the django documentation suffer from this, cut&paste simply does not work in the python world and it is much poorer because of that. It also can make debugging such a problem hell because you have to completely grok the code in order to spot the fact that the last line of a code block has somehow mysteriously jumped left 4 spaces. And it makes refactoring code a major pain. Braces rule compared to spaces.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  cut&paste simply does not work in the python world and it is much poorer because of that. I think that might have made it much better! http://perldesignpatterns.com/?CutAndPasteProgramming http://perldesignpatterns.com/?CutAndPasteProgramming
  - geocar 17y ago
    There are other uses for cut/paste besides CutAndPasteProgramming; for example, one may want to post a snippet to a comment box that doesn't offer a preview function. def foo(): if something: do_something_else print "bar" What went wrong?
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    Especially while learning a new language cut & paste is a pretty good way to get function definitions from the the tutorial into the interpreter. Having to re-type a bunch of stuff that is already in a computer makes me feel like it is 1978 again.
    - snprbob86 17y ago
      Cut and paste is a good way to get the definitions from the tutorial into the interpreter without reading them. Personally, I've only ever had a problem copy-pasting from the web. Even then, it is rare; a mild occasional annoyance well worth the price of the clutter free syntax.

4 ms·

True, having a round trip to Lisp's standardized format might make this usable. I have to wonder how much of Ruby's success is owed to being unable to trivially

by prodigal_erik 17y ago

jacquesm 17y ago
That's one of my pet peeves with python. Even sites like the django documentation suffer from this, cut&paste simply does not work in the python world and it is much poorer because of that. It also can make debugging such a problem hell because you have to completely grok the code in order to spot the fact that the last line of a code block has somehow mysteriously jumped left 4 spaces. And it makes refactoring code a major pain. Braces rule compared to spaces.
- stcredzero 17y ago
  cut&paste simply does not work in the python world and it is much poorer because of that. I think that might have made it much better! http://perldesignpatterns.com/?CutAndPasteProgramming http://perldesignpatterns.com/?CutAndPasteProgramming
  - geocar 17y ago
    There are other uses for cut/paste besides CutAndPasteProgramming; for example, one may want to post a snippet to a comment box that doesn't offer a preview function. def foo(): if something: do_something_else print "bar" What went wrong?
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    Especially while learning a new language cut & paste is a pretty good way to get function definitions from the the tutorial into the interpreter. Having to re-type a bunch of stuff that is already in a computer makes me feel like it is 1978 again.
    - snprbob86 17y ago
      Cut and paste is a good way to get the definitions from the tutorial into the interpreter without reading them. Personally, I've only ever had a problem copy-pasting from the web. Even then, it is rare; a mild occasional annoyance well worth the price of the clutter free syntax.