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Yesterday I had to explain to my 9-year-old daughter that the bug in her Python script was due to the fact that she indented with a tab and not four spaces. Tr

Yesterday I had to explain to my 9-year-old daughter that the bug in her Python script was due to the fact that she indented with a tab and not four spaces. Trying to publish her program so that her friends could use it was a nightmare (it's a console app). It's 2015 and we have the brightest minds working on this stuff and it's all shit.

JupiterMoon 11y ago
There are linters to handle syntax issues like tabs for spaces. Furthermore every text editor I've ever used has supported automatic handling of tabs/spaces and how many to indent. Not sure on publishing but maybe try packaging it properly (I believe python apps can be wrapped into .exe files) and putting the package into something like dropbox folder? It's 2015 and these problems are solved already.
- david927 11y ago
  Linters I take back "brightest minds"
  - JupiterMoon 11y ago
    Why?
anentropic 11y ago
it's 2015 and you're still using the wrong editor
- moistgorilla 11y ago
  What? He doesn't even mention anywhere in his comment what editor he is using
  - orf 11y ago
    And he didn't need to, any editor that mixes space indents with tabs is the wrong editor.
    - edanm 11y ago
      Untrue - start editing a file in a tabs editor, download a snippet from the internet that has spaces in it, and voila - you've screwed up your file. And this happens all the time to professional developers, much less 9-year-old beginners.
      - pmalynin 11y ago
        Sublime Text's Anaconda will complain about tabs / spaces mismatch.
      - takeda 11y ago
        All is needed is to have editor that can show white spaces (i.e. show tabs differently than spaces, after all those are two different characters). With that the whole issue with tabs and spaces no longer exists. BTW if you are copying snippets of code from website "as is" in any language you will have to reformat it to fit your structure. Also if you copy code so often that this is becoming an issue I'm not sure I would want someone like that working for me.
        JadeNB 11y ago
        > Also if you copy code so often that this is becoming an issue I'm not sure I would want someone like that working for me. This seems like a cruel comment in a thread specifically talking about a 9-year-old learning her first language.
  - task_queue 11y ago
    It's the wrong one if it doesn't convert tabs to spaces.
- makeset 11y ago
  That there are right and wrong editors for Python is exactly the point. A 9-year-old could understand BASIC 30 years ago without having to worry about choosing the "right" editor to handle different types of blank space.
toolslive 11y ago
Doesn't exposing a 9-year old to Python register as child abuse?

JupiterMoon 11y ago

There are linters to handle syntax issues like tabs for spaces. Furthermore every text editor I've ever used has supported automatic handling of tabs/spaces and how many to indent. Not sure on publishing but maybe try packaging it properly (I believe python apps can be wrapped into .exe files) and putting the package into something like dropbox folder? It's 2015 and these problems are solved already.

david927 11y ago
Linters I take back "brightest minds"
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  Why?

anentropic 11y ago

it's 2015 and you're still using the wrong editor

moistgorilla 11y ago
What? He doesn't even mention anywhere in his comment what editor he is using
- orf 11y ago
  And he didn't need to, any editor that mixes space indents with tabs is the wrong editor.
  - edanm 11y ago
    Untrue - start editing a file in a tabs editor, download a snippet from the internet that has spaces in it, and voila - you've screwed up your file. And this happens all the time to professional developers, much less 9-year-old beginners.
    - pmalynin 11y ago
      Sublime Text's Anaconda will complain about tabs / spaces mismatch.
    - takeda 11y ago
      All is needed is to have editor that can show white spaces (i.e. show tabs differently than spaces, after all those are two different characters). With that the whole issue with tabs and spaces no longer exists. BTW if you are copying snippets of code from website "as is" in any language you will have to reformat it to fit your structure. Also if you copy code so often that this is becoming an issue I'm not sure I would want someone like that working for me.
      - JadeNB 11y ago
        > Also if you copy code so often that this is becoming an issue I'm not sure I would want someone like that working for me. This seems like a cruel comment in a thread specifically talking about a 9-year-old learning her first language.
- task_queue 11y ago
  It's the wrong one if it doesn't convert tabs to spaces.
makeset 11y ago
That there are right and wrong editors for Python is exactly the point. A 9-year-old could understand BASIC 30 years ago without having to worry about choosing the "right" editor to handle different types of blank space.

toolslive 11y ago

Doesn't exposing a 9-year old to Python register as child abuse?